Vermont Pride Theater is pleased to announce a staged reading of The Laramie Project on Saturday January 26th, at Chandler Music Hall in Randolph, benefiting the Matthew Shepard Foundation. Director Cher Laston and Producer Sharon Rives are seeking eight adults to participate in this reading.

On October 7, 1998, young Wyoming college student Matthew Shepard was brutally attacked, tied to a fence outside of Laramie, Wyoming, and left to die because he was gay. In the weeks following his death on October 12th, Moises Kaufman's NYC-based Tectonic Theatre Company traveled to Laramie to begin answering a central question raised by this tragedy: how would Laramie change as a result of Matthew's death? From 18 months of interviews of over 200 residents of Laramie, 100 of the most compelling and diverse stories were woven into The Laramie Project script, in which eight actors voice these 100 narratives.

To reflect most accurately the diversity among the persons behind the Laramie stories, Ms. Laston encourages community members who have little to no experience on stage to consider participating alongside more seasoned actors. Interested persons should contact her at dramaqueen1957@gmail.com or through Messenger/Facebook by December 31st. Rehearsals will be scheduled at the participants' convenience, during the month of January.