See 'The Laramie Project' in East Brunswick

EAST BRUNSWICK, NJ - This month, the Gender and Sexual Minorities and Allies Club at Middlesex County Vocational and Technical High School presents "The Laramie Project," to honor the lives lost in the Pulse nightclub shooting on June 12, 2016.

The staged reading will take place Friday, February 24 at 7 p.m. at the East Brunswick Vocational and Technical High School auditorium and will feature a mixture of professional performers, members of the GSMA club and students from the MCVTS Theatre program. Tickets are free for everyone and there will be free parking. The theater is at 112 Rues Lane in East Brunswick.

Schools across America are currently performing "The Laramie Project" to honor the 49 victims killed in the gay nightclub shooting, which was the worst terror attack since 9/11. The shooter, Omar Mateen, pledged allegiance to ISIS.

The East Brunswick performance will honor Stanley Almodovar III. Stanley, a 23-year-old pharmacy technician, was one of the victims of the Pulse shooting. He graduated from East Ridge High School in Clermont, Florida in 2011 and studied to work in a pharmacy at Anthem College. He is described as “an amazing person with a good soul,” “a wonderful friend” and “a happy man with a big heart” by his friends and family. The performance will not only honor him, but it will celebrate the life that he lived and those he impacted.

"The Laramie Project" was written by Moises Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater, based on a series of interviews and stories gathered after Matthew Shepherd, a gay college student, was murdered in Laramie, Wyoming. Moises Kaufman and his team made trips to Laramie for over a year and a half to interview people from the town about their reactions to the situation. Though it was released in 1998, the play created a conversation that is still taking place today.

The GSMA club at MCVTS is dedicated to creating a safer environment in school for students of all gender expressions, sexual orientation, and romantic orientations. The club is about education and inclusion instead of hatred and isolation. The club hosted the vo tech high school's first-ever Pride Week this past fall.