Local businessman Chris Doyle is taking his first foray into theater to play several roles in "The Laramie Project." And, as a former resident of Laramie, Wyo., he is taking his roles very personally.

"Having no play experience, I was naturally nervous," said Doyle, who auditioned for the play after his godson, Ian Brink, asked him for support. "But I thought it would be a great opportunity to be involved in a powerful play and a powerful experience."

"The Laramie Project," presented by Advocates for Creative Theater Students, a community fundraising group for Central High School theater students, focuses on the reaction of the community of Laramie, Wyo., to the brutal beating and subsequent death of Matthew Shepard.

At the time of Shepard's death, Doyle was living in Laramie. He said that although it was a difficult time to live through, being in the play has been a good experience.

"My godson is in the play, and if I can support him, that's what I want to do," Doyle said. "It has been a great experience to spend time with my godson and do this with him."

Although his involvement in the show has been worthwhile, Doyle also said it has been difficult at times.

"At first, it was hard to read the script," Doyle said. "As I was reading it, I remember the people I knew - these people I used to see all the time - and I thought, 'I am "The Laramie Project."'"

Doyle said the fact that the script quotes real people is part of the challenge, because there is an extra responsibility to represent the people truthfully. And although the show is the result of what happened to Shepard, Doyle asserts that it is not about Shepard.

"The play is a snapshot of a broad spectrum of people and their ideas and emotions about this tragic event," he said. "It's not about Matthew Shepard - it's about how people felt about what happened to Matthew."

Doyle had lived in Laramie for about four years when Shepard was assaulted. He said that if there hadn't been such a "media circus" surrounding the event, it wouldn't have been so bad for the community.

"Everybody's drawing conclusions about who we are and what we did to allow this tragedy," Doyle said. "But we're the same people we were the day before. When you're in the epicenter of that and getting told who you are, it's really tough and frustrating."

Doyle said that the "fear-mongering" was also hard to deal with.

"The entire town was characterized as a result of what two individuals did to another individual," Doyle said. "Matthew Shepard's murder opened the door for all this emotion. These types of events are reference points for our culture, for America."

Doyle said he was in the courthouse the day that a hearing was held for Aaron McKinney, one of the men accused of murdering Shepard.

"I was there to do something else - something simple, like get new tags for my car," Doyle said. "But there was all this bustling at the courthouse, and in the hallway, I just happened to see him (McKinney). He was like 5-5 and about a buck-10. And I remember thinking, 'How could someone so small create so many problems?'"

Aside from the fact that the subject matter covers a controversial event in American history, Doyle said he doesn't feel that the show is controversial. But before his godson asked him for support at auditions, he didn't really know anything about the show.

"I didn't read the show prior to auditioning. I didn't go to the show when it was performed in Laramie, I didn't watch the movies - why would I? I lived it," he said. "I didn't need to see it again. But mostly it was because I thought the play was about how poor gay kids get killed if they live in Laramie."

But Doyle said the play doesn't paint Wyoming as bigoted and that the play is about much more than bigotry, anyway.

"What the play really does is weave together all of these different opinions about what it was like to live through the death, the trial, etc.," he said. "I think the (Tectonic Theater Project) did an excellent job of capturing the broad array of personal reactions to such a grotesque tragedy. This show tries to capture the voices of the people whose lives were affected by the tragedy. What they found out is, we are anybody."

Contact Crystal Hohenthaner at 394-8329 or crystal.hohenthaner@rapidcityjournal.com.