When Matthew Shepard, a young gay man, was brutally tortured and murdered in 1998, his death wasn't considered a hate crime.
It was that horrific night in Laramie, Wyoming, however, that set the wheels into motion to include sexual orientation and gender identity as a protected class of hate crimes. It took another near-decade of activism and lobbying for that to happen.
In 2016, almost 20 years after Matthew Shepard's death, the composer Craig Hella Johnson decided it was time to reflect on the event. He did it with the blessing of Matthew Shepard's parents, Judy and Dennis, and as he composed a new kind of oratorio, which he named Considering Matthew Shepard, he found himself constantly asking this question:
"At the core, in the midst of such confounding reality, you know this darkness, this hatefulness, this sense of separateness that we have created in the culture… In the midst of these things that we cannot understand… is love anywhere to be found? And this is my living question. This piece is still a part of my asking. And I’m asking it with audience members too."
- Craig Hella Johnson
This weekend, Louisville audiences will be asked this question, too.
Above, find my conversation with two of the directors of Louisville's production of Considering Matthew Shepard, Andrew Schaftlein (producer) and Gil Reyes (artistic director).
Considering Matthew Shepard
VOICES of Kentuckiana, Pandora Productions & Highland Baptist Church
Venue: Actor's Theatre of Louisville
Friday, October 10, 2025, 7:30PM
Sunday, October 12, 2025, 3:00PM
