Laramie Project Reflection

Prompt: Theater is one of the forms of communication that is not Mass Media. Do you think this play was worth reading in class? What class issues did it connect to?


     In these next paragraphs, I'll be discussing whether or not The Laramie Project was something that we should've read as a class, and the issues that it connected to. Being one of the most performed plays in America today, The Laramie Project gives a new perspective to one of the most startling hate crimes in American history. 
     While theater is not a form of mass media, I don't think that reading The Laramie Project in class was a waste of time, for multiple reasons. The first is that the Matthew Shepard story was a story that completely involved sensational journalism, and journalism is one of the largest forms of mass media. Another reason is because Matt Shepard's story is one that everyone needs to hear about, especially in light of recent occurrences in the gay community. The play refers multiple times to the gay community as a whole, not just as Matthew Shepard as a gay person. I feel that if people who have committed hate crimes lately were to read The Laramie Project and get a new perspective on gay people, some of those crimes may not have happened. A final reason that The Laramie Project was good to read in class is because overall, it's just a good play. It's stylistically very different than all other plays, and the writers do an excellent job at explaining both sides of the argument, even when the the side that the writers are on is clearly established. It takes a huge amount of skill and humility to be able to listen to someone who is adamantly against the cause that you are fighting for. 
     The Laramie Project connected to a large amount of class issues, the main one being sensational journalism. When Matt Shepard's story started circulating through the news, the people grabbed onto it, and kept eating up every single story that was published about it. Another way that it connects is because it shows perfectly how the reporters only exposed one side of the story. In almost every article on Matt Shepard, there is never an interview with his killers. Nobody ever gave Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson a chance to say exactly what was going through their minds when they killed Shepard. 
     Overall, I thought that reading The Laramie Project was really interesting and beneficial. It gave a whole new insight to a story that I thought I already knew, and it was written in a style that was interesting to read and to imagine showing up on a stage.