(From left) Alison Lawrence, Lesley Dowey, Deborah Drakeford, Mark McGrinder, Kimwun Perehinec and Dylan Roberts perform in a 2003 production of The Laramie Project at Studio 180 in Toronto. (Studio 180)

New York's Tectonic Theater Project, which created The Laramie Project, a theatrical work that examines the events surrounding a gay man's murder, is creating an epilogue to the famous work.

The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later will include new interviews with some of the residents of the town where university student Mathew Shepard was killed and an epilogue that represents an interview with his killer.

The Laramie Project, created in 1999 based on interviews with the people of Laramie, Wyo., is a cornerstone of campaigns to raise awareness about violence against gays and to pass hate-crimes laws.

The theatrical work has been read and performed thousands of times around the world as a fund-raiser or community awareness project. Universities, theatres and high schools plan to present it this year on the 10th anniversary of its creation.

The 10 Years Later version and its epilogue are to be performed in more than 100 U.S. theatres and at least three in Canada on Oct. 12, the 11th anniversary of Shepard's death in Laramie.

Killer serving 2 consecutive life sentences

Moses Kaufman, artistic director of the Tectonic Theater Project, sent a team of actors and writers to Laramie to determine if residents' attitudes toward the murder had changed in the intervening years.

Greg Pierotti, a gay actor/writer who helped create the original docudrama, interviewed Aaron McKinney, who's serving two consecutive life sentences at Wallens Ridge State Prison in Big Stone Gap, Va., for Shepard's murder.

In 1998, McKinney and a friend picked up Shepard, then a 21-year-old student, in a Laramie bar, and robbed and savagely pistol-whipped him, then left him tied to a fence in a remote area. He wasn't found until 18 hours later and died in a Colorado hospital on Oct. 12.

"The night I did it, I did have hatred for homosexuals," McKinney said in the interview, though he said his initial motivation was robbery.

"Well, he was overly friendly. And he was obviously gay. That played a part ... his weakness. His frailty. And he was dressed nice. Looked like he had money."

Pierotti logged more than 10 hours of interviews with McKinney, but failed to get the killer to express any remorse.

"As far as Matt is concerned, I don't have any remorse," McKinney is quoted as saying in the script.

When pressed again on the question of regret, McKinney said he was sorry for Shepard's family and that his life had taken such a bad turn.

"Yeah, I got remorse. But probably not the way people want me to," McKinney said. "I got remorse that I didn't live the way my dad taught me to live."

'She never shuts up about it'

Shepard's mother, Judy, has been a tireless campaigner for anti-hate laws and involved in some of the thousands of performances of the Laramie project.

She is also interviewed again for the new Laramie Project script.

McKinney has no sympathy with her activism.

"Still, she never shuts up about it, and it's been like 10 years," he said.

The epilogue and updated script are being offered to the theatres, high schools and universities that will present The Laramie Project:10 Years Later.

The Canadian participants include:

• Studio 180 in Toronto.
• Toto Too Theatre in Ottawa.
• Dariusz Entertainment in London, Ont.