American Stage Theatre Company Deems Their Reading of THE LARAMIE PROJECT: 10 YEARS LATER To Be 'A Success'

The American Stage Theatre Company's one night only staged reading of THE LARAMIE PROJECT, 10 YEARS LATER on Monday, October 12 was a huge success, attracting over 200 patrons.

"American Stage can only fit 182 people into the new Raymond James Theatre, but people kept pouring in wanting to experience this special event," said Todd Olson, the theatre's producing artistic director. "Rather than leave, patrons actually decided to sit in our lobby and watched the reading on our monitors. We had 202 total patrons help us pay tribute to Matthew Shepard on the tenth anniversary of his murder and experience the premiere of this brand new work by Moises Kaufman and the Tectonic Theater Project."

THE LARAMIE PROJECT, 10 YEARS LATER was performed in a simultaneous reading led by Tectonic Theater Project in New York at the Lincoln Center and over 130 other theaters in all fifty states and around the world.

After the final totals for the night are tallied, a portion of the money collected will go to the Matthew Shepard Foundation, which helps in diversity tolerance education efforts around the world.

American Stage Theatre Company is a not-for-profit professional theatre founded in 1977. The company's mission is to create the most satisfying live theatre in the Tampa Bay area, accessible to all members of the community. Their vision is to preserve the greatest human stories from our past, while creating the most defining stories and storytelling of our time. American Stage presents its six play Mainstage Series on its brand new 182-seat Raymond James Theatre each year. The very popular American Stage in the Park celebrates its 25th Anniversary year. The theatre's other programming includes: After Hours Series, School Tour, and classes and summer camp for children. The Hough Family Foundation is the season sponsor, Raymond James is the Mainstage sponsor, Bank of America is the education partner and WUSF 89.7 is the radio sponsor of American Stage.