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The Laramie Project Opens at Pepperdine

The Pepperdine University Fine Arts Division and Theatre Department presents The Laramie Project by Moisés Kaufman and the members of Tectonic Theater Project at the Helen E. Lindhurst Theatre on the Malibu campus. Performances run Tuesday through Friday, Jan. 29 to Feb. 1, at 7:30 p.m. and on Saturday, Feb. 2, at 2 and 7:30 p.m. A discussion forum will follow Wednesday's performance.

Time magazine called The Laramie Project "one of the best plays of 2000," and in 2002 the play won the Los Angeles Ovation Award for Best Play. Today it is one of the most produced plays in America. Pepperdine theatre professor George Neilson directs the student cast. The Laramie Project is the 40th show that he has directed for the University.

The Laramie Project by Moises Kaufman began in November 1998, one month after Matthew Shepard's murder on the outskirts of Laramie. Kaufman conducted interviews with over 200 residents of the Laramie community to document how they were coping with the reality of the brutal hate crime that was perpetrated by two area youths.

The Laramie Project tries to capture the emotions, reflections, and reactions of the people of Laramie who were most closely related to the crime, and asks the audience to call into question the beliefs and values that form the very bedrock of modern society: faith, tolerance, forgiveness, community, and the desire for truth.

Tickets for The Laramie Project, priced at $15 for the public, $10 for Pepperdine students, and $12 for Pepperdine faculty and staff, are available now by calling the Pepperdine Center for the Arts Box Office at (310) 506-4522. Tickets for the general public are also available through Ticketmaster at (213) 365-3500.