Burning Coal Theatre Company of Raleigh, NC will join 99 other theatres nationwide to simultaneously present the world premiere staged reading of The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later by Moises Kaufman, Leigh Fondakowski, Greg Pierotti, Andy Paris and Stephen Belber of the Tectonic Theatre Project of New York City. The reading, a fundraiser for Equality North Carolina Foundation, will take place on Monday, October 12th at 8 pm at the Murphey School, 224 Polk Street, Raleigh. Only 140 tickets will be sold. For reservations, please call 919-834-4001. Tickets: $10. All ticket revenue will go to Equality North Carolina Foundation. WHY
On October 6, 1998, Matthew Shepard was murdered in Laramie, Wyoming. He was a 21 year old gay man. Shortly after the killing, playwright Moises Kaufman and members of his Tectonic Theatre Project travelled to Laramie to interview many of its citizens. The resulting play, The Laramie Project, has been produced in New York and around the world. To commemorate the anniversary of Mr. Shepard’s murder, Kaufman and the Tectonic Theatre have again sought comments and insight from the citizens of Laramie and surrounding areas.

The new play, The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later, will be presented at 100 theatres from coast to coast on the same night. Winston-Salem’s Paper Lantern Theatre is also presenting a reading of the play here in North Carolina. Tectonic has been working on this epilogue for more than a year, interviewing residents of Laramie about the fallout from the killing and its impact on their community. Included among the interviews are Matthew’s mother Judy Shepard and Mathew’s murderer Aaron McKinney, who’s serving dual life sentences, as well as follow-up interviews with many of the individuals from the original piece.

WHO
Burning Coal Theatre Company, a small professional theatre based in Raleigh, just completed its 12th season, and first full season at the Murphey School. The cast will include Raleigh actors James Anderson, Tamara Farias Kraus, Julie Oliver, Jenn Suchanec, along with Jerome Davis (Burning Coal’s Artistic Director). Preston Lane, Artistic Director of Greensboro’s Triad Stage will also be in the cast. Ian Finley of Raleigh will direct the reading.

Equality North Carolina Foundation works to secure equal rights and justice for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender North Carolinians.

The Tectonic Theatre Project (Moisés Kaufman, Artistic Director, Greg Reiner, Executive Director, Jeffrey LaHoste, Managing Director, Dominick Balletta, General Manager) is the company behind such plays as Gross Indecency, The Laramie Project, and I Am My Own Wife. Awards including the Humanitas Prize, the Obie, the Lucille Lortel Award, The Outer Critics Circle Award, the GLAAD Media Award, the Artistic Integrity Award from HRC, and the Making a Difference Award/Matthew Shepard Foundation. Tectonic works in Universities around the country and hosts a NY based lab for theater artists. Thanks to the NEA, Greenwall Foundation, Arcus Foundation, Small Change Foundation and Educational Foundation of America. Tectonic Theater Project would like to acknowledge the extraordinary leadership of The Rockefeller Foundation in supporting the development of the original Laramie Project and The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later. For more information, visit www.laramieproject.org.