This year’s Theatre Company presented the Laramie Project: the story of Matthew Shepard, a gay man murdered in 1998 and the aftermath on the town of Laramie, WY.

The play, written by Moises Kaufman, and members of the Tectonic Theater Project comprised interviews from Laramie citizens and their responses to homosexuality, Shepard’s murder, and the two men involved in his untimely death.

“We have a cast of 40 students and over 30 crew members,” said Claude Blanchard, OLTC’s director and sponsor.

The cast and crew dedicated hours in rehearsal since mid-September almost every day, working between the auditorium and room 108.

OLTC’s Vice President Dillan Alspaugh had the idea of the theme of the play proposed to her by Blanchard at the Virginia Thespian Conference.

“What do you think about us doing an edgy piece next year? A controversial piece?” asked Blanchard.

From there, one of OLTC’s presidents and the show’s narrator, Tristan Hicks, took off with the idea of an “edgy piece” and “found the Laramie Project in a book before proposing the idea to Blanchard,” said Dillan.