While The Laramie Project is billed as a Verbatim performance, how does part of it differ from the Verbatim form?

I think that there are aspects of Kaufman's work that
represents verbatim theatre.  The most notable of this would be the collection of
interviews from people in Laramie and the interviews of the members of the Tectonic
group themselves.  This represents verbatim theatre because of its docudrama style,
allowing the voices of the people in the setting speak for themselves.  This also
represents verbatim theatre because it allows for a type of historiography present in
the way in which interviews are collected, marking primary source footage in a secondary
source element.  Where I think that Kaufman's work might deviate a bit from the verbatim
format lies in how the work presents life in Laramie and Matt Shepard's life, in
general:

In
order to accurately present the information that he and his troupe had gathered, Kaufman
created the illusion of reality by formatting his play not as a fictional story, but
rather as a reenactment of the interviews. The fictional, or artistic, part of the play
was in how Kaufman pulled all this information together and made it tell a
story.

It is here where
Kaufman differs from true verbatim style, which is more concerned with a historical
recreation.  Kaufman wants the political message of his work to have the greatest
effect.  This means that the construction of Matt Shepard's experiences and his life in
Laramie is done to facilitate a larger discussion of homophobia and fear of "the
other."  Verbatim theatre is more concerned with this recreation, whereas Kaufman's work
seeks to start a much needed discourse.  This is why specific parts of the work can move
away from verbatim style, as Kaufman seeks another form while embracing aspects of
it.