From LGBTQ+ rights to murder cases, the WHHS theater season will feature lots of productions unique to high school theater this year. These productions ask audiences to consider tough questions that are relevant to today’s political environment.

One of those productions is The Laramie Project, which was recently banned at a school in Kansas.

“It’s [The Laramie Project] about the murder of Matthew Shepard, who was a gay college student in Laramie, Wyoming in 1998, where he was tied to a fence on the outskirts of town and savagely beaten,” Mike Sherman, one of the theater teachers, said. “It really was a watershed moment in the LGBTQ+ movement.”

Sherman feels that productions like The Laramie Project are important to the theater department for many reasons. 

“We have a lot of students who identify as queer or trans that either take classes or work in the department or both,” Sherman said. “It was important to me to do a piece in a climate like this that tells the story of a member of their community.” 

SENIOR Laylah Torain will be the assistant director for the Laramie Project. She is excited to take on this role even though she knows there will be challenges. Torain has been a part of the theater department since she was a sophomore and is very passionate about it. 

“For me personally, it [theater] opened up a community where I can be myself,” Torain said. 

The Laramie Project is a unique play for many reasons, however, one of the biggest ones is how it is written as two separate plays. The theater department will be adhering to this. They will be performing the first play on Nov. 2-4 and the second play on Dec. 9-10. 

“The first play is very much about what we do and how we move forward in the immediate aftermath of those things [Matthew Shepard’s murder],” Sherman said.

The first part was so successful that 10 years later the Tectonic Theater went back to Laramie and did more interviews, which became the building blocks of the second part of the play.

“The second play is a lot more about how we deal with revisionist history, and how the media can shape a narrative, for better and for worse, and what, ultimately, is the lasting legacy of Matthew Shepard in the United States,” says Sherman.

Another aspect that makes The Laramie Project unique to Walnut’s theater department is some of the language that is used. 

“There are some negative slurs that are said in this play about the LGBTQ+ community,” Sherman said. “But saying those words in the context that they’re meant in the play is important for the message to come across. So we’re having good conversations about it amongst the cast.”

The Laramie Project does contain some heavy moments, however, Sherman feels as though this adds to the significance of the play.

“I think it’s important that they [the audience] also leave with a sense of hope,” Sherman said. “Not because this problem in America is solved, but it could be if we take it upon ourselves to do the right thing.”