FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, April 12, 2010

Contact:  Robert Preston, Jr.,
              912.260.4276
              robert.preston@sgsc.edu

SGC Theatre Company to Perform The Laramie Project

In 1998, Matthew Shepard, a twenty-one-year-old gay student registered at the University of Wyoming, was tied to a cattle fence, beaten, robbed, and left to die on a cold night in October. Eighteen hours later, a biker accidentally discovered Shepard and had trouble believing that the figure he saw on the fence was human. Authorities arrived, and Shepard was taken to a local hospital. However, Shepard was beyond recovery. He never regained consciousness and died several days later due to his head injuries. Two local young men were charged with the crime.

The Laramie Project, written by 46-year-old Moises Kaufman, founder of the Tectonic Theater Project, tells the story of Shepard’s death. The Laramie Project is the South Georgia College Theater Company’s spring production and will be presented on Wednesday, April 21 at 12:30 p.m. Other performances will follow April 22-24 at 7 p.m. All performances are in The Black Box Theatre, room 142 in Peterson Hall.

The play is based on over 400 interviews with about 100 Laramie residents, as well as journal entries from the members of Tectonic Theater Project and Kaufman, as they reflect on their own reactions to the crime and to the interviews they carried out. It is structured as if it were a documentary as it attempts to re-enact the events that occurred on that fateful night.

This event is free and open to the public.

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About South Georgia College

South Georgia College (www.sgc.edu) was founded in 1906 and is a two-year institution in the University System of Georgia. Located in Douglas, Ga., the college's environment gives students exceptional opportunities for interdisciplinary study and close collaboration with faculty.