Resource Guide
Want to know more?
The Laramie Project
The Meaning of Matthew: My Son’s Murder in
Laramie, and a World Transformed, by Judy Shepard
Want to continue the discussion?
Do you think theatre is a good medium for
exploring the issues connected with Matthew
Shepard’s murder? Why or why not?
The Whole World Was Watching: Living in the Light
of Matthew Shepard, by Romaine Patterson and
Patrick Hinds
What can you do to help prevent violence and
prejudice in your school and community?
Facing History and Ourselves
www.facinghistory.org
In The Laramie Project, Tectonic Theater Project
quotes Father Roger Schmit as saying that Aaron
McKinney and Russell Henderson are “our most
important teachers.” What do you think he means
by this?
The Matthew Shepard Foundation
www.matthewshepard.org
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling
Bee
American Bee: The National Spelling Bee and the
Culture of Word Nerds, by James Maguire
Bee Season: A Novel, by Myla Goldberg
National Spelling Bee
www.spellingbee.com
The Hoosier Schoolmaster, by Edward Eggleston
“Spelling for Amusement,” from The New York
Times, 9 April 1875
Violet
“The Ugliest Pilgrim,” by Doris Betts
From Segregation to Desegregation: Blacks in the
U.S. Army, 1703-1954, by Raymond B. Ansel
Encyclopedia of Television, ed. by Horace Newcomb
Broadway: The American Musical
www.pbs.org/wnet/broadway
Media Worlds in the Postjournalism Era, by David L.
Altheide and Robert P. Snow
Can you think of another type of bee you could
participate in? Maybe a needlepoint bee or a
brownie-making bee!
In an interview with India West, 1999 Spelling
Bee winner Nupur Lala said: "I'm amazed at the
sea change ... I remember not even wanting to
tell people what I was doing over the weekend
when I was competing in the regional spelling
bee. It was that big of a liability. And now I see
that, yeah, people want to be nerds. I think that's
great." What do you think has caused this
societal change?
The recent defeat of the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”
policy clearly mirrors the struggle for racial
integration in the U.S. military. Why do you think
our military has so often been ahead of the civil
rights curve?
What ideals of masculinity and femininity are
presented to us on television today?
If you were to take a bus cross-country, what
kind of characters do you think you’d meet?
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