The Tectonic Theatre Project will host Moisees Kaufman’s The Laramie Project, starting March 30 as part of a two-week series.

The Laramie Project is a play based on the death of Matthew Shepherd and the lessons learned from it.

Matthew Shepherd was a young gay man found beaten to death on Oct. 7, 1998 in Laramie, Wyo.

The director, Fred Gorelick, said The Laramie Project “is a vital story that has to keep being told.”

Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theatre Project traveled to Laramie and interviewed members of the community after Shepherd’s death. The play is comprised of the responses of Laramie residents, including Shepherd’s father and murderers.

The show demands each of the eight actors to play as many as 10 different characters, transcending gender, religion and sexual preference.

“I’ve learned to stretch my abilities as an actress to encompass many characters at once,” Mary Guthrie, a sophomore in chemical engineering, said.

The actors have also learned life lessons.

“I’ve learned to understand the views that I don’t agree with,” Chad Goudy, a senior in microbiology, said.

Guthrie learned “one person can make a difference in the world.”

Junior in biological sciences Kirsten Grieneisen said the story is an important one, not just for those in the gay community, but for society as a whole.

“It’s so relevant to what everyone goes through if you’ve never felt completely accepted,” she said.

Goudy agreed, hoping audience members would “learn acceptance out of it.”

While the play is composed of the reflections of Laramie citizens, Gorelick has created a set that brings Laramie to North Carolina.

Designed as a classroom, the set includes an American and North Carolina State flag with a silhouette of N.C. State’s campus in the back. These creative choices question the mentality and homophobia of Raleigh residents.

Gorelick hopes “the audience would feel that they are in this class being addressed.”

And it does feel as though you are being taught. Some of the script is written on blackboards by the actors, including “H-O-P-E”.

Ironically, even some of the monologues from the script refer to what is taught to future generations regarding hate. One of Guthrie’s lines is, “You’ve taught your straight children to hate their gay and lesbian brothers and sisters.”

Likewise, one of the Laramie residents, played by Darryl Jones, a sophomore in landscape architecture, says “apparently we do grow children like that.”

In this ironic classroom setting, questions of what children are learning involving tolerance cannot be avoided.

“I hope we do the play justice,” Scott Heath, senior in computer engineering, said. “I want people to learn to not hate.”

Tony Sprinkle, a University graduate, composed music to enhance the performance; it will be performed by cellist Mark Foster.

The Laramie Project will be performed March 30 through April 2 and April 5 through 9. All shows are at 8 p.m., with Sunday matinees at 3 p.m. Tickets are $14 for the general public, except weekday evening performances, which cost $16. Tickets are $6 for NCSU students.

As you watch, remind yourself that these are the accurate interviews of Laramie residents. They are not fictitious to favor a personal opinion. They are the voices of real people.