85 pages • 2 hours read
Moises KaufmanThe Laramie Project
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 2001A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
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Act III, Moments 4-5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Act III, Moments 4-5 Summary
In “Angels in America,” the theatre company speak to Rebecca Hilliker before leaving Laramie. She tells them she’s producing Angels in America at the University in the upcoming season. The University has a lot of work to do in the aftermath of Matthew’s death; it needs to find ways to reach and educate its students in the face of deep-rooted homophobia. She believes that the theatre is one way to do that, and Jedadiah Schultz is auditioning for the lead role in Angels in America. Jedadiah tells us that he had a huge argument with his parents about his decision to audition for the part. They objected to his participation in the play because they believe that homosexuality is a sin. However, he pointed out that they had happily watched him play a murderer in Macbeth, and murder was a sin. He has never prepared so much for a role before.
Detective Rob DeBree has never had much to do with the gay community before this case, but he has a new perspective on the fear that LGBT people live with every day. He argues that in America, you shouldn’t have “to feel that fear” (78). He is not going to tolerate homophobia anymore, a stance that has already lost him some friends, but which allows him to sleep at night. His colleague, Reggie Fluty eventually learned that she did not contract HIV and, at a party to celebrate, kissed every guest on the lips, male and female.
A year after Matthew’s death, Aaron McKinney’s trial began and it was decided that it would be “A Death Penalty Case” (79). Laramie residents have conflicting opinions about this. Marge Murray can’t decide whether it’s right or wrong, she feels too close to the case. Zackie Salmon, on the other hand, believes this case warrants “an eye for an eye” (79) approach. Matt Mickelson isn’t sure he wants Aaron to receive the death penalty, but he does want both perpetrators to stay in jail for the rest of their lives, “Two wrongs don’t make a right” (79). Zubaida Ula doesn’t believe she has the right to decide, especially if the Shepard family wants McKinney dead, but she went to school with Aaron—whom she knew as AJ—and finds it difficult to think about putting him to death. For Father Roger Schmit, Aaron and Russell have the potential to teach their community an important lesson; he wants to hear their story in order to learn how they came to commit such a crime.
Act III, Moments 4-5 Analysis
These two moments consider the work that people such as Rebecca Hilliker and Rob DeBree are doing to change both their community and themselves in the wake of Matthew’s murder. Jedadiah Schultz makes an interesting point with regards to theatre and morality when he points out that the protagonist of Macbeth is a murderer—and, therefore, a sinner—but that this does not pose a problem for people, such as his parents, who otherwise refuse to attend plays that feature homosexuality because they consider it a sin. This argument reinforces Rebecca’s claim that theatre can be a way of helping people to engage with important and complex issues, such as LGBT rights, particularly in cases where there is strong religious and cultural resistance to homosexuality.
At the same time, Laramie residents are asked to consider whether Aaron McKinney deserves to be put to death for the murder of Matthew Shepard. This is a complex moral question without any clear answer. Zackie Salmon references the Old Testament when she refers to the philosophy of “an eye for an eye,” whereas Matt Galloway echoes the New Testament approach of turning the other cheek when he states that “two wrongs don’t make a right.” Significantly, Father Schmit, the Catholic priest, does not address the morality of the death penalty but focuses on the potential to learn from what happened to Matthew, rather than on the punishment of his killers. He wants to know what their society taught Aaron and Russell that led them to commit such a heinous crime in order to prevent it from happening again.
