The Bainbridge High School theater is presenting “The Laramie Project” for their annual fall play this year.

Opening in the school’s Large Group Instruction room at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 7 — with additional shows on Nov. 8, 14 and 15 — the play focuses on the tragedy surrounding Matthew Shepherd’s brutal beating in Laramie, Wyoming in 1998, and the community’s diverse reactions to this tragic event.

There are 12 students representing almost 60 different characters, all taken from primary source interviews conducted by the Tectonic Theater Project from 1998 and 1999. The Theater Company then wrote the original play’s dialogue from those interviews, creating a unique story arc using exact wording from the actual residents of Laramie.

“The play has been an incredible experience for the twelve actors, the tech crew working on the show and those of us supporting the production,” Theater Director Barbara Hume said. “The play has never been staged on Bainbridge Island before.”

The cast includes Thomas Allen, Henry Bacon, Kate Crandall, Lucy Donohue, Alex Fuller, Teagan Howlett, Keith Lyon, Ian McFarland, Erin Melia, Ella Meyers, Alyssa Pazoff and Jill Schulte.