In 1998, University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard was murdered near the outskirts of Laramie. The ensuing investigation led to the conclusion that he had been tortured because he was gay. Reaction to the event led members of the Tectonic Theatre Project to conduct hundreds of interviews with inhabitants of Laramie and turn their comments and thoughts, combined with news reports, into a play which has been performed across the nation and was made into a 2002 HBO film.