You won’t find a big dance number or a fanciful, fictional plot in Interlake High School’s next play, “The Laramie Project.”

Instead, audience members will be confronted with a play based on a horrific true story: In 1998, a gay college student named Matthew Shepard was kidnapped, severely beaten and left to die, tied to a fence on the outskirts of Laramie, Wyoming.

Interlake drama teacher Katalin Wargo, said she chose this production because it was a great opportunity to start a dialogue among Interlake families and students.

“It shows how hate is a societal issue that is our problem; we can make a change,” said Wargo, who asked students how they felt about playing characters that were, for example, pro-gay rights or homophobic when they auditioned for the show.

The nine actors in “The Laramie Project,” collectively play a total of 60 different characters – an added challenge for the actors who use dramatic gestures, voice, props and subtle costume changes to take on each role.

Interlake junior Ben Kadie, plays Shepard’s father, Shepard’s academic adviser, as well as a local, Unitarian minister, for example.

This is because, rather than dramatizing the hate crime, the play is a series of real testimonials from people in the town based on more than 200 interviews. Interviews were conducted by playwright Moisés Kaufman and his fellow members of New York-based Tectonic Theater Project when they visited Laramie five weeks after Shepard’s murder.

The experimental theater group, which aims to start dialogue with audiences on social, political and human issues, would go on to compile the interviews that would make the play.

Wargo said, while the play takes a specific look at homophobia, a serious and relevant issue in itself considering the number of gay teens who took their own lives in 2010, bullying in general affects almost all students.

“It’s making people feel marginalized or put down for who they are, it can be physical or verbal – it has many forms,” she said.

Kadie said bullying is an important topic for teens and adolescents, who often use “gay” or “faggot” as put-downs – not realizing how that could really hurt someone.

“Ultimately, the message is of hope,” said Kadie, who hopes the play opens peoples’ eyes to these problems. “There was a crime here, but we can turn it into positive change.”

“The Laramie Project” is 7:30 p.m., Nov. 17-19, with an additional 1:30 p.m. show on Nov. 19 in the Interlake High School auditorium at 16245 NE 24th St., Bellevue.

For more information about “The Laramie Project,” go to http://on.fb.me/uEkzTz.

Gabrielle Nomura can be reached at 425-453-4270.