Anglicans hit the stage

Several Anglicans in the Guelph, Ont., area were involved recently in the production of The Laramie Project, a play about homophobia. The production revolves around the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, an Episcopalian and a young, gay man, in Laramie, Wyo. He was lured from a bar, beaten and left to die, tied to a fence post outside the town. The climax of the play comes when a fundamentalist minister from Kansas arrives to picket at Mr. Shepard’s funeral, as happened in real life. The minister and his followers, whose pickets read “God hates fags,” believe that homosexuals are destined for hell. When Mr. Shepard’s friends discover the fundamentalists are planning to return to picket at the trial of his killers, they dress as angels with enormous wings to block out the picketers and their signs. The production’s 66 acting roles were played by students, faculty, staff and administration from the University of Guelph, plus parishioners from St. David and St. Patrick’s Anglican churches in Guelph, in southern Ontario.