The audience at the Lensic Performing Arts Center Monday evening was in many ways a cross-section of Santa Fe: Men and women, gay and straight, of different races, religions and social backgrounds, and ranging in age from high school and college students to spry seniors.

They acted very much like the crowd coming to any cultural event — commenting on the weather, laughing and chatting, hailing friends in the lobby, retailing gossip. Then the house lights went down, a live feed started from Lincoln Center in New York, and people listened attentively. But they still clapped and cheered as members of the Tectonic Theater Project were introduced, actor Glenn Close spoke, and a quiet woman named Judy Shepard said a few words about a son of hers who died Oct. 12, 1998, 11 years ago.

Then the feed stopped, the screen went up into the flies, eight actors walked onstage, and a reading of The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later began — one of 150 taking place in all 50 states and 14 countries around the world. And there was very little laughter to follow, except when the cruel absurdities of life, denial and human horror provoked that nervous response in order to hold tears or outrage at bay.

Laramie Ten is a follow-up play to Tectonic's The Laramie Project, which premiered in 2000. That work was the result of months of sifting interviews, journal entries, court transcripts and news stories about the murder of University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard, 21, and turning tragedy into an artistic statement.

On Oct. 6, 1998, Shepard was robbed, brutally beaten and pistol-whipped, tied to a fence and left for dead by Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney of Laramie. The person who found him hours later thought at first that his slumped, tortured figure was that of a scarecrow.

Shepard, whose injuries were inoperable, lived in a coma until Oct. 12. The crime garnered national horror and attention, as well as shining a mesmerized international spotlight on Laramie. For Shepard was gay, and the attack was considered a hate crime.

During the trial, Henderson pleaded guilty and testified against McKinney, who was convicted of felony murder. Both men, now just turning 30, are serving two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. The incident sparked a national campaign for sexual or gender identity being added to the federal definition of a hate crime.

Ten years after The Laramie Project, Tectonic director Moisés Kaufman and his fellow company members returned to Laramie to follow up on the case, the response, and how the town was dealing with the event — or not. They spoke to or recorded words from the officers who investigated the case; Matthew's friends; university faculty and staff; legislators; the man who owned the bar where the three men met; Shepard's parents; and the actors' journal entries. And in chilling yet gripping sequences, they put Henderson and McKinney onstage in their own words from prison interviews.

In some of the 150 cities where Laramie Ten was taking place simultaneously around the world, the cast numbered up to 18. The eight actors here were noted Santa Fe performers Dan Gerrity, Scott Harrison, Karen Leigh Nott, Freddy Lopez, Mona Malec, Bob Martin, Vanessa Rios y Valles and Lori Romero. The production was directed by noted Santa Fe theater artist Casa Bastille.

Even in a staged reading with fairly minimal rehearsal, the story's impact was startling — especially when Harrison impersonated both murderers with uncanny character identification. Following the reading, the global audience was given a Twitter number and invited to submit comments or questions for discussion and response live from the New York event.

A number of Santa Fe Preparatory School students were there from the Gay-Straight Alliance/Student Diversity Leadership Club with their faculty adviser, Maria Sheldon. They attended in preparation for a forum on discrimination and hate crimes at the school this Thursday.

Three students asked about their thoughts on the play are all 17, which means they were 7 or 8 when Matthew Shepard died. What did they think?

"I think the younger generation is the one that's going to make change happen," said Sofia Miera, "and convince our family and friends about making things happen." She was referring to a line in the play where a Laramie resident wondered if it was the young who could eventually remove bigotry and hate from both consciousness and action, rather than elders.

Sebastian Stokhof de Jong said, "The play was pretty powerful. It really gets its point across." Mariana Radack nodded in agreement as he went on: "Something like this could happen anywhere, but Santa Fe is so accepting. I've never felt that I had to worry about being singled out over anything. We've got to learn more about this and spread the word."

Contact Craig Smith at 986-3038, csmith@sfnewmexican.com.