On the night of Oct. 6, 1998, two young men attacked a 21-year-old college student named Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyo. They tied him to a fence, tortured him and left him to die. Mistaken for a scarecrow, he was found 18 hours later, still tied to the fence and in a coma from which he never recovered.

Matthew Shepard was murdered because he was gay.

Ten years later, the Miami University community, in conjunction with schools and theaters across the world, will remember Matthew's story through concurrent performances of The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later in the hopes that we never forget the effects of hate and intolerance. Ten Years Later includes new interviews from Shepard's mother and assailants.

The performance will take place Oct. 12.

The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later, an epilogue to the original production, will be performed in Hall Auditorium by Miami students and staff and

Oxford residents on the 11th anniversary of Matthew Shepard's murder.

The play

Gion DeFrancesco, Miami theatre professor, said The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later stages an updated collection of interviews with those involved in the crime in a documentary style. DeFrancesco is a performer and production manager for the reading.

Actors will take on the personas of the interviewers and the interviewees, including the two assailants and Matthew's mother.

Paul K. Jackson Jr., director and Miami professor, said actors will be reading interviewees' own words, adding authenticity to the play.

"The challenge is to animate it and bring the audience onto the stage because holding the book on stage can act as a barrier," Jackson said. "You have to keep the audience focused and centered."

DeFrancesco said he sees the stage reading format as an opportunity to let the audience use their imaginations and connect with the material more strongly.

"It leaves more to the imagination about what it was like to be there and what the characters look like,"

DeFrancesco said. "I think as an audience member it's more engaging to use your imagination to fill in the details."

Junior Heather Weaver, a theater major and stage manager, said she agrees the stage reading format will have a stronger impact than a traditional play.

"It really allows us to show that it's other people's voices that are speaking," Weaver said. "It lets the audience see these people being interviewed and helps them differentiate between the actor and the person they are representing."

Miami: 1 out of 100

The Oct. 12 reading at Miami is part of a larger effort by nearly 100 theaters across the world. They aim to look at how one of the most widely publicized hate crimes against a member of the LGBTQ community has affected our society as a whole.

Jackson said although Matthew Shepard was by no means the first person to be victimized by an anti-gay hate crime, his murder created one of the first real public recognitions of anti-gay violence and hate.

"I want to do this reading because I think we need to look back to see where we are in terms of Mathew Shepard, in terms of society and the community," Jackson said. "We need to ask, 'Where have we come from?' and 'How have we moved forward?'"

Weaver said even though Matthew was murdered 10 years ago, his story is still extremely relevant.

"People need to know why he died and what changes are being made as a result," Weaver said. "It's important for the community to be aware of these issues and to see how far we have come and how far we still need to go."

Oxford and Laramie

Senior Sam Sosey, an education major who incorporated The Laramie Project into her student teaching curriculum at Talawanda High School, said she agrees Matthew Shepard's story is one that needs to be remembered.

"Most of the students in my class didn't know about The Laramie Project or what happened to Matthew Shepard," Sosey said. "I was surprised how many people at Miami didn't even know much about it."

Sosey said after watching the HBO adaptation of the original Laramie Project and hosting a visit from one of the playwrights in her Talawanda minority studies class, she couldn't ignore the issues surrounding Matthew Shepard's murder.

"Oxford and Laramie are so similar in terms of makeup, size, ethnicity and religion," Sosey said. "These kids who did this, they could have been your classmates, your friends, your brothers. It actually could happen here and we want to do everything we can to make sure it never does."

Caitlin Van Mol, a senior mass communication major, said despite the similarities, she doesn't think something like Matthew Shepard's murder would happen in Oxford in the future.

"I think we are a more tolerant society than we were in 1998," Van Mol said. "While we've come a long way, remembering the extreme consequences of intolerance helps us notice the smaller examples we witness everyday."

Jackson also recognizes the many demographic similarities between Oxford and Laramie but is more troubled by a less tangible shared characteristic.

"Both towns are very much a part of the American ideal," Jackson said. "It's this idea that 'You can pull yourself up from nothing' and that 'We are exceptional people.' That kind of American-ness can be destructive. You start thinking only of yourself and not as much about someone else."

Continuing the dialogue

Jackson said the nation-wide performances of The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later is an opportunity to raise awareness about hate crimes but also to set the record straight about the details surrounding the murder.

"Since the murder, people have tried to manipulate the story to say that it was a drug deal gone bad and that's simply not true," Jackson said.

DeFrancesco agreed the play can help people recognize that Matthew Shepard's murder was a hate crime and help them to understand hate crimes in general.

"I think the play gives compelling evidence that it was a hate crime," DeFrancesco said. "The epilogue is important for us to move forward and to help us understand each other and eliminate hate crimes."

DeFrancesco said he hopes no one ever forgets what happened to Matthew. He said he also hopes The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later reminds society that gay and lesbian people have the same rights as everyone else.

"There will be people who disagree," DeFrancesco said, "but as long as that creates a healthy dialogue, then that's okay. Having that dialogue instead of responding with violence is the most important thing."