How a play from half-way across the world keeps 'changing lives'

The show's director, Rae Smith, turned on her microphone to speak to the nine-strong group, reminding them that, when it came to questions about the horrific murder of Matthew Shepard in 1998, there were "no questions off limits".

They could ask Shepard's father, who would be joining them on call in a few minutes, anything at all.

Dennis Shepard's answers, Smith said, would imbue their performances with a rare personability and understanding that - as Dennis himself put it - could "change hearts and minds".

"If you can arm yourself with knowledge, that is a powerful thing," Smith said.

And arm themselves they have: Three River's production of The Laramie Project has had unprecedented access to its source material by not only speaking with Mr Shepard but in another regard, too.

In May, its director travelled to Laramie, the small Wyoming town where Matthew was murdered in one of the worst anti-gay hate crimes in American history.

In 1998, Matthew Shepard was brutally beaten and left crucified on a fence outside the small town he was studying in. He died in hospital six days later from his injuries. He had been beaten to death because he was gay.

His story became a rallying cry for queer rights and a cause célèbre that changed laws.

It was also the basis for The Laramie Project, a verbatim theatre play produced using more than 200 personal transcripts sourced through face-to-face interviews with residents of the small town, members of its police force and Matthew's friends.

Now, more than 20 years on, that play - which has been employed as an educational tool, and has often inspired grassroots efforts to combat homophobia - is being put on by Smith and her cast.

And for a show being pieced together on the other side of the world by a small theatre group in Launceston, its director's trip to Laramie and the cast's chat with Matthew's father, Dennis, are invaluable, at a professional level, and certainly abnormal.

But for Rae Smith, this level of interaction with the source material is entirely necessary. She knows how much the show can "change lives".

The director first came across The Laramie Project in 2008 when she was cast in a Hobart production of it directed by the acclaimed Robert Jarman. It was one of the first dramatic roles she had ever auditioned for after years of musical theatre involvement.

"The impact this production had on me as a person was profound," Smith said.

"People have either heard of Matthew Shepard beforehand or they haven't, and I hadn't. And I will never forget him.

"That's why I wanted to stage it for my directorial debut."

Rather than being a dramatisation of the events of Matthew's murder, the award-winning play - which was debuted in 2000 - follows its aftermath and uses the actual words of the people of Laramie. The small cast play about 70 roles, and it's "different to your regular show."

"You're not creating a backstory for someone imaginary; these are people who really lived, and are still living, after this horrible thing," Smith said.

"That's why, when I was in America, I needed to go."

With her father, Smith spent a day in Laramie - a town about the size of Devonport - taking in the atmosphere. She said it was "extraordinary."

With Pride Month preparations in full swing at the time of her visit in May, posters and events were everywhere commemorating Matthew's legacy. Smith toured the campus where Matthew was studying and drove around the town's streets, immersing herself in the atmosphere.

"It exceeded my expectations," Smith said. "I've never been so emotionally affected."

In the aftermath of their son's murder, Judy and Dennis Shepard established The Matthew Shepard Foundation.

In June this year, having already corresponded with Smith ahead of her trip, the foundation reached out with another offer of assistance: Dennis Shepard was available to speak to the cast.

Timing was an issue - Mr Shepard did still live in Wyoming, after all - but once that was sorted, he video called in on June 16. The cast had prepared a litany of questions; Shepard answered every single one.

He was kind with his time, open, and a jovial, consummate interviewee, likely a skill picked up across a long-running effort to speak with companies across the globe that have put on the show. Later that week, he was to call a troupe in Africa that were staging their own Laramie Project. At the end of the call, he asked childishly, "Do you really have to go?"

The cast didn't want to tear themselves away from the conversation either. Particularly Stuart Loone - the actor who'll play Mr Shepard in the play. But the call did finally come to a conclusion, but the feeling didn't - the cast were still reeling from the experience.

"They're still processing now, and I think they will be for a long time. This is a story that's sadly still so relevant," Smith said.

"I mean, let's be serious about this; In Tasmania', it was illegal to be gay until the '90s. It's still a fight that's going on today and, for me, this show gets under your skin, even without seeing the places or the people it's based on.

"But I think, having physically been in Laramie and spoken to Dennis, I want to bring that to the performance.

"It makes you see how much bigger this is than a few actors on stage."