Photo by Michael Bailey

Cast members of the drama department’s production of “The Laramie Project,” which runs at the Culbreth Theatre Feb. 14-15 and 19-22.

What happens to an American town when something unexpected, unconscionable and unforgivable rips it apart and thrusts it into the national spotlight? That question led a New York City theatre troupe to the town of Laramie, Wyo., to interview residents after a gay college student named Matthew Shepard was brutally beaten, tied to a barbed wire fence and left for dead off a rural road.

“The Laramie Project” chronicles the life of the town in the year after the murder. This piece of theatrical journalism explores the depths to which humanity can sink and heights of compassion of which it is capable.

• Feb. 14, 15, 19-22, 8 p.m., Culbreth Theatre. For tickets, call box office at 924-3376.