Laramie, Wyoming, a small town of peace and tranquility along with a nice view of the picturesque mountains and ranches. The year is 1998. University student, Matthew Shepard, was found dead in an alley. Following Matthew Shepard’s death, many news reporters have arrived at Laramie to cover the story causing attention nationwide putting Laramie on the map. Now, the small town that was once known for its tranquility and beautiful mountains and ranches is now defined as the town where a homosexual student was killed. Moises Kaufman, theater director of the Tectonic Theater Project and his crew flew to Laramie to further investigate the story of Matthew Shepard's death and how it has strongly affected the people of Laramie. Moises Kaufman emphasizes setting in “The Laramie Project” in order to castigate Laramie because it establishes trepidation for people who are different. This criticism is most evident within the religious community in Laramie, the characterization of the minorities living in Laramie, and also the descriptions of the physical setting of Laramie. The criticism of Laramie establishing a culture of fear for people who are different first emerges when the Tectonic Theater Project interview several people of the religious community in Laramie to express their thoughts on Matthew Shepard's death. This is first seen when Father Roger Schmidt, of Laramie’s Catholic Church calls out other religious leaders of Laramie for being hypocrites and sticking to their conservative views about homosexuality.” We wanted to get the other ministers involved and we called some of them, and they were not going to get involved. And it was like, “we are gonna stand back and wait and see which way the wind is blowing”. And that angered me immensely. We are supposed to stand out as leaders”(pg 35). Moises Kaufman uses setting to establish a mood in Laramie, where the majority of Wyomingites are Christian (US Census), to display that the religious community in Laramie isn’t ready to accept gays or to change their views about homosexuality. Taken in consideration that the religious community in Laramie is looked down due to how they’ve responded to Matthew Shepard's death, Father Roger Schmit encourages other religious leaders to be more open in order to rebuild their reputation and to show everyone that the religious community is open to all regardless of ones sexual orientation, but he then states that they don't want to get involved which proves that the religious community in Laramie isn’t ready to accept gays or to change their views about homosexuality since the vast majority of them do not condone homosexuality because its considered as a sin. He then calls out the religious leaders who didn't want to join his move