On Monday, Oct. 12, over 100 auditoriums across the country will simultaneously swing open their doors for the world premiere of The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later. While most states only have two performances, North Carolina has been blessed with a third, thanks to a special performance granted to Guilford.

The Guilford theatre studies department will be participating in the country-wide presentation of this epilogue to the Tectonic Theater Project’s (TTP) 1999 play The Laramie Project, thanks to a hard-fought struggle for the rights and the privilege. “It’s happening only in very carefully chosen locations. They’re trying not to saturate the market,” said co-director of the play and theatre studies department chair Jack Zerbe.

The play itself is about the murder of Matthew Shepard on Oct. 12, 1998. He was beaten, tied to a fence near Laramie, Wyoming, and left to die. The murder has long been attributed to homophobia, as Shepard was a homosexual and much of the evidence in court pointed towards that being the motivation for the crime.

A month after the murder, Moisés Kaufmen and other members of the TTP traveled to Laramie in order to interview people of the town. Those interviews would later become known as The Laramie Project.

“The reading does a great job of showing just how much and how little the world has changed in regards to homosexuals,” said Zerbe.

Ten years later, the play has been seen by over 50 million people and counting. Now Guilford will get the chance to join the ranks of the many theatre groups that have performed this momentous production.

“At the beginning of the year, David Hammond and I were talking about putting on a performance of The Laramie Project for the October 12th anniversary, but shortly after we began, the 10 Years Later epilogue was announced,” said co-director and president of the Revelers, senior Allison Martin.

Though many factors came into play when the TTP was debating whether or not Guilford was a suitable place to present the epilogue, the incidents in Bryan Hall over the last few years proved to be a deciding factor.

“David Hammond sent in the information about the Bryan incident from 2007 and they were so impressed with how the community responded that they decided to give us the rights,” said Zerbe.

“Considering the recent bias incident in Bryan Hall, there is certainly a place for this upcoming production in our Guilford community . Hopefully it will foster awareness in regards to the unfortunate strength that discrimination can carry,” said cast member Carly Mills, a senior.

“It’s what people need to hear right now. ‘No, this is not what we stand for as a community. This is not what we’re going to allow our community to be known for. We are accepting and we don’t want anyone to be afraid of what’s going to happen to them at Guilford’,” said Martin.

While the event is not in reaction to the bias incident, it does come at a time when the community is going through a period of change and self-questioning that is reflected in the play.

“There is a bit of a ‘right timing’ element,” said Mills. “I think theatre can be a powerful instrument for social change because of the impact of representation . As we attempt to understand and embody these various characters, there is a certain amount of compassion taking place. I hope the audience experiences this as well.”

The production will be presented at 8 p.m. on Oct. 12 in Dana auditorium. The whole event will include a live video message from the original cast, followed by the reading and then finally a live Q&A session with the original cast via video feed and social media networks like Twitter.