Over the past year, audience members have left the Whidbey Playhouse with a smile on their face and a feeling of warmth in their chests. This weekend, they might leave with heavy hearts and some reflection to do.

“The Laramie Project” is an uncomfortable invitation to look at ourselves in the mirror and question our own morals and actions, according to cast members.

The play was the center of controversy last year when Oak Harbor High School Principal Nate Salisbury vetoed the drama club’s plan to perform it, saying it is not age or school appropriate. Later, the Playhouse decided to take on the play, featuring many of the same students who fought to have it at the school.

The play is a docudrama that tells the real story of how the murder of a young homosexual man affected a rural town in Wyoming, Laramie. Directed by Shelby Montoya, the play is a recreation of the interviews conducted by playwright Moisés Kaufman and the Tectonic Theatre Project, a theater company. Over the span of a year and a half, Kaufman and members of the company traveled to Laramie on six occasions to interview members of the community after the death of 21-year-old Matthew Shepard.

Forget the elaborate sets, sound effects and the chaotic choreographies. Throughout the play, the stage spotlights illuminate the characters who occasionally sit on a chair. Much of the power in the play comes from an awareness that it uses real transcriptions of interviews.

Seventeen-year-old Dana Rivo, who like the rest of the cast plays a variety of characters, said the play is special as it deals with topics that theater companies are often uncomfortable with depicting.

Perhaps, like some cast members and the director, the audience might see Oak Harbor in the people of Laramie — a community with a variety of perspectives and attitudes towards being gay.

As a young gay man attending his last year at Oak Harbor High School, Ethan Johnson is aware of some hostility towards the school’s LGBTQ+ community, an issue mentioned by some of his peers as well.

Some cast members, like Grace Jones, said it’s normal to hear slurs while walking down the halls in the school and that pride flags have often been stolen and found in the trash.

“People should come see ‘The Laramie Project’ because it shows the magnitude of hate that any town can have,” Johnson said.

Eclipse Garrett believes the play is an educational experience as it shows how hate can affect an entire community, even people who don’t experience it directly.

Garrett identifies as nonbinary and has experienced many challenges for their gender identity. After seeing snippets of the play at the Washington State Thespian Festival last year, Garrett and other members of the school’s drama club knew they needed to bring the story to their school as a way to make their peers reflect.

Graham Ray plays Aaron McKinney, one of the young men who tortured Matthew Shepard and left him to die tied up to a fence in a field.

Unlike his castmates, Ray, who is a junior at Oak Harbor High School, believes the principal made the right decision.

“If we ended up doing it at the school we would have invited a lot of hostility that I don’t think a lot of us would be prepared for,” he said.

Some of the cast members personally met with Salisbury to invite him to see the play at the Playhouse. Much to their surprise and excitement behind the scenes, he showed up to the show’s press night last Friday.

Like many cast members, Producer Eric George said he was shocked to see the principal sit among the small audience.

“I honestly feel like the principal did a disservice to the kids,” he said. “There are so many ways that this could have gone and the fact he chose to look the other way makes me sad.”

However, George was glad Salisbury paid a visit and was able to see how the cast has honored Matthew Shepard’s legacy.

“Working on this show and learning about Matthew has been so rewarding and one of the things I am most proud of,” he said.

Some people, Montoya said, might be hesitant to see the show out of fear they will feel too sad. She recalled a video call with Dennis Shepard — Matthew Shepard’s father — where the cast and crew asked a variety of questions to best tell this story.

His advice: hiding from the harsh reality of the world won’t lead to any positive change.

The Playhouse invites community members of all shades of the political spectrum to learn about Laramie’s story and Matthew Shepard’s impact. This unique opportunity runs 7:30 p.m. on March 8, 9 and 10 and is appropriate for audiences ages 12 and older or at parents’ discretion.

To purchase tickets, visit whidbeyplayhouse.com.

Aaron McKinney (played by Graham Ray), one of Matthew Shepard’s murderers, is interrogated by Rob Debree (Eclipse Garrett), the chief investigator on the case. (Photo by Luisa Loi)