JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Students at the Douglas Anderson School of the Arts are scheduled to stage a production of The Laramie project next month, and an anti-gay group is threatening to protest.
The stage play is about the 1998 killing of Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student.
Recommended Videos
Members of the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas are threatening to picket the stage production, and teachers at the school are preparing for the protest.
"Well, if they come, then they're here," a school spokeswoman said. "We're doing what we always do, and that is contemporary theater at its best about relevant issues concerning hate crimes and the laws that have been spun off such horrible incidents."
Westboro members gained national attention conducting anti-gay protests across the country. They often target military funerals, carrying signs that read, "Thank God for Dead Soldiers," saying those deaths are God's punishment for America's tolerance of homosexuality.
This is not the first time Westboro has threatened to picket the play, and the faculty at the school wants to be ready.
"We're ready. We're going to do our play and continue as is," the spokeswoman said. "If they're here, they're here. If they're not, they're not."
Most recently, Westboro members leveled threats against a production being staged at Millersville University in Lancaster County, Pa., but were a no-show. Still, faculty at Douglas Anderson isn't taking any chances.