Laramie Killing Given Epilogue a Decade Later

[Shana A]

Laramie Killing Given Epilogue a Decade Later

By PATRICK HEALY
Published: September 16, 2008

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/17/theater/17laramie.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&oref=slogin

LARAMIE, Wyo. — Near the end of "The Laramie Project," the widely praised and frequently staged play about how this small city grappled with the notorious murder of the gay college student Matthew Shepard, one of the characters wonders if the convictions in the killing will help Laramie heal.

"Maybe now we can go on and we can quit being stuck, you know?" says Reggie Fluty, a local policewoman. She is one of the real-life characters whose words, collected on tape, make up the actors' entire script.

Ms. Fluty was among 200 people interviewed in 1998 by the Tectonic Theater Project, a New York City company that created "The Laramie Project" shortly after Mr. Shepard was tied to a fence by two Laramie men, pistol-whipped and left to die in the frigid Wyoming night. And Ms. Fluty is among those whom the theater company is re-interviewing this week to explore whether Mr. Shepard has a legacy here on the high plains, 10 years later.