Poster

"The Laramie Project"

Next week will mark the 13-year anniversary of the night college student Matthew Shepard was lured from a bar by two local men in Laramie, Wyoming, driven to a remote location, beaten nearly to death, robbed, tied to a fence and left to die. It would be another 18 hours in frigid temperatures before a passing cyclist, at first thinking he was a scarecrow, would discover a scarcely living Matthew Shepard. Never regaining consciousness, he would die from his injuries 6 days later in the arms of his parents. (Please see video, below)

Moises Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project launched “The Laramie Project” in February of 2000. It is a stage play that draws on hundreds of interviews conducted by the theater company with residents of Laramie, company members’ own journal entries and published news reports. It is divided into 3 acts and eight actors portray more than sixty characters in a series of short scenes.

Erin Bigelow

We are joined this week by Director, Erin Bigelow, whose stage production of “The Laramie Project” is coming to New York’s Upper West Side and Harlem next month. We talk about why “The Laramie Project” is still an important message in today’s culture, more than a dozen years after the events from which it was inspired. We talk about hate crimes, bullying and the social culture that breed them – more importantly – we talk about how to push back against it and make a difference. We hope you’ll join us for this special presentation of “BROADSIDED”.

This week, we will look at Matthew’s life and legacy, The Matthew Shepard Foundation. We also hope to help raise money for a NYC production of this play to spread the word that hate is not acceptable. Help us Erase Hate in honor of Matthew. Thursday, Sept 29, 2011 at 11 am EST. You can also donate to the production of the play at http://www.indiegogo.com/the-laramie-project-1.

((Live)) online Thursday, September 29, 2011

To Listen, please go to www.HereWomenTalk.com and click the play button

11am-12 Noon Eastern (8-9 am Pacific)

You are invited to call in: 877-500-ZEUS (9387)