I'm sitting here in the Student Center on a Saturday afternoon. It's freezing outside, a pathetically dreary day. Considering I'm a commuter, campus is the last place I would want or expect to be on the weekend.

But I'm here, in the Players office, watching the cast warm up before rehearsal. They're in pairs, using each other's warmth to energize their partners. Fingertips dance up and down spines to "wake up" the muscles. Comfort and trust is being built. Slowly but surely, energy is being pumped into the room, bodies are awakened and revitalized artists stand all around me, instead of the living dead that walked into the room minutes ago.

My job is a strange one. To observe; cultivate; assist; guide. Jobs in the theatrical world are usually so specific: director, actor, designer. As a dramaturg, I'm still learning my role every single rehearsal and every day.

This specific project is an incredible story to dramaturg. It feeds into my need for social change, for acceptance and tolerance. The Laramie Project is so much more than a play; it's a message, one that I have to help make clear and spread.

Today we'll talk, we'll laugh, we'll experience sadness together. And we'll build the message, preparing to blast it out all over this campus, and the world.

It's a tall order for a Saturday morning in January, but being around such motivation makes one realize that in this world, nothing is too hard to accomplish.

-Kristen, dramaturg

At the Beginning

This journey started in America's heartland, and ten years later it's here at Montclair State University.

Matthew Shepard was brutally tortured and murdered in October 1998 simply because he was gay. His life was wrongly taken from him for no reason, spurring movements all over the country that preached love, acceptance and tolerance. Matthew became a martyr for equality, and twelve years after his death we are still fighting the fight. Weeks ago the New Jersey Legislature denied the passage of a gay marriage bill, underlining just how relevant Matthew Shepard's story still is today.

There's so many things you can say about The Laramie Project; it's about human rights, communities, politics, love, hate, and so much more. The beauty in this story is that everyone can connect with different aspects of it, making it universal.

Spread love. Erase hate. Join us as we follow in the path of the Tectonic Theatre Project and open our hearts and souls to this wrenching story.

-Kristen, dramaturg