GORHAM – “The Laramie Project” directed by Wil Kilroy will open the University of Southern Maine’s 2004-05 Department of Theatre season on Sept. 24.

It’s based on Matthew Shepard’s death in 1998. On Oct. 7, 1998, the young gay man was discovered bound to a fence in the hills outside Laramie, Wyo., savagely beaten and left to die in an act of brutality and hate that shocked the nation. Shepard’s death became a national symbol of intolerance, but for the people of Laramie the event was deeply personal, and it is their voices that are heard in Moises Kaufman’s compelling play, “The Laramie Project.”

“The Laramie Project” was written collaboratively by members of the Tectonic Theater Project. Led by Kaufman, they traveled to Laramie a month after Shepard’s death to interview townspeople, then returned six more times in two years. In his introduction to the piece, Kaufman compares the event to the indecency trials of Oscar Wilde at the turn of the previous century.

“There are moments in history when a particular event brings the various ideologies and beliefs prevailing in a culture into sharp focus,” Kaufman wrote. “At these junctures, the event becomes a lightning rod of sorts, attracting and distilling the essence of these philosophies and convictions. By paying careful attention in moments like this to people’s words, one is able to hear the way these prevailing ideas affect not only individual lives, but also the culture at large.”

In the play, audiences don’t meet 21-year-old Shepard. Instead, they hear from his friends, from the bartender who served him his last drink, from a bike rider who found him almost dead, from the officer who administered first aid at the scene and from the two youths who were eventually convicted of his murder.

An ensemble of eight actors performs the brief vignettes and monologues, assembled from the words of 76 different characters plus court documents, which make up the text. The result is a powerful work that explores the minds and hearts of these western townsfolk.

Shows on the main stage in Russell Hall of the school’s Gorham campus will run from Friday, Sept. 24, to Sunday Oct. 3. Curtain time is 7:30 p.m. Sept. 24, 25 and 30, and Oct. 1 and 2. Matinees will be at 5 p.m. on two Sundays, Sept. 26 and Oct. 3, and Wednesday, Sept. 29. FMI: call 780-5151.