BANGOR – “The Laramie Project,” written by Tony and Emmy award-nominated Moises Kaufman, along with members of Kaufman’s New York-based Tectonic Theater Project, is being performed by Penobscot Theatre Company through Nov. 13 at the Bangor Opera House, 131 Main St.

The play was announced by Scott R.C. Levy, producing artistic director of PTC.

The play chronicles life in Laramie, Wyo., after the death of Matthew Shepard, a teenager who was beaten and left to die on a fence for being homosexual.

The Tectonic Theater Project traveled to Laramie seven times over an 18-month period to interview 200 of the city’s residents. The testimonies, performed by an ensemble of eight actors, make up the content of the play.

On the opening of the original New York production, the New York Times wrote: “Deeply moving … This play is ‘Our Town’ with a question mark, as in ‘Could this be our town?'”

In the case of Bangor, theater officials said, the answer is yes. On July 7, 1984, Charlie Howard was thrown into the Kenduskeag Stream off the State Street bridge and drowned after three assailants harassed him for being homosexual. The event galvanized the community in ways similar to the killing of Matthew Shepard.

Joye C. Levy, director of education for the theater, is not only creating pre-show workshops for student matinees, but also organizing “talk-backs” following each performance. Members of organizations such as the Eastern Maine AIDS Network, Center for the Prevention of Hate Violence and the Charlie Howard Foundation will lead discussions.

John Clancy, who performed as an actor with Penobscot Theatre 13 years ago, is directing the production. He is the founding artistic director of The Present Company and a founding artistic director of the New York International Fringe Festival, now the largest multi-arts festival in North America. He has won five fringe first awards at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland and was awarded the New York Magazine Award in 1997 for “creativity, enterprise and vision.”

In the ensemble are New York-based actors Richard Busser, Brian Hastert, Mikki Jordan, Zoey Martinson and Christopher Yeatts; and local actors Kristen Burkholder and Nathan Raleigh of Belfast and Starsha Schiller, theater major at the University of Maine.

The design team includes set and costume designer Lex Liang, consultant to Disney’s Entertainment Costuming; lighting designer Jonathan Spencer, associate lighting designer for Broadway’s “Metamorphoses,” and media designer Adam Kuykendall, most recently seen as Freddy in Penobscot Theatre’s “Picasso at the Lapin Agile.”

Performances of “The Laramie Project” will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 3, reduced price preview; opening night, 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 4; 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 5; 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 6 and Wednesday, Nov. 9; 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 10; 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday Nov. 11-12; and 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 13.

Tickets are $21 and $25 (previews $12), and may be purchased at the box office or by calling 942-3333. The box office is open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday and beginning two hours before showtime. Information and online ticketing are available at www.PenobscotTheatre.org.