Embodied Encounters: Ethics, Representation and Reiteration in Ten Years of The Laramie Project

The Tectonic Theater Project (TTP) under the leadership of Moisés Kaufman began their ethnographic research in Laramie, Wyoming in November 1998, four weeks after the murder of Matthew Shepard. The impact of The Laramie Project is significant as an example of theatre for social change; however the methods used by the TTP to gather and disseminate their research material for this project are often overlooked. Furthermore a full-length epilogue, published ten years after the original performance, reassesses the research and results, developing a complicated field of ethical dilemmas in representation. This article maps the ways in which The Laramie Project is connected to and also how it significantly departs from the codes of ethics outlined by three leading anthropological organizations and considers the challenges inherent in performance as representation. Documentary drama, like The Laramie Project, becomes a rich and useful space for rehearsing the ways in which ethics guide fieldwork in anthropology and performance, and how these disciplines might learn from and employ particular strategies inherent to each discipline.