Monday, September 22, 1997 Life’s drama sets theatrical stage
AIDS: Plays documenting tragedy aim to help heal and educate
audiences
By Cheryl Klein
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
The things Ronald Dennis has seen. The actor who originated the
role of Richie in "A Chorus Line" is something of a veteran – not
just professionally, but also as a survivor of AIDS.
"Survivor" is a word only recently and still hesitantly
associated with the typically fatal virus. But after several years
of what Dennis calls the "physical and emotional hell" of
full-blown AIDS, Dennis is healthy and working. His one-man-show
details his battle with the disease and contains a segment called
"The Things I’ve Seen."
It’s appropriate, as is the title of the entire piece: "Don’t
Grab the Gown Until You See the Gurney."
Thanks to protease inhibitors and other new drugs, more and more
artists are facing life after years of preparing for death. As the
science of the disease changes, so do society’s reactions. And
since the mid ’80s, theater has played a fairly large role in
shaping views of AIDS. Looking at the history of AIDS performance
may help one to understand a legacy of theatrical activism as well
as speculate on what’s to come.
No one, perhaps, stands better positioned to do this than
Michael Kearns. Kearns has immersed himself in the cause for more
than a dozen years, as an HIV-positive writer, director, actor and
producer. In 1985, he directed "Night Sweat" by Robert Chesley and
"Warren" by Rebecca Ranson, two early AIDS dramas that conveyed the
disease in very contrasting ways.
"’Night Sweat’ was very extreme," Kearns says. "(‘Warren’) was
simple, autobiographical, accessible – almost like a movie of the
week on stage. Very easy to take for an audience."
"They were certainly aware of the science of AIDS," says David
Roman, an assistant English professor at USC and author of "Acts of
Intervention: Performance, Gay Culture, & AIDS." "But for many
people, these early AIDS plays put a human face on AIDS."
"Warren," though, may have been the exception. Editor Therese
Jones refers to "first generation" AIDS plays in her anthology,
"Sharing the Delirium." These tend to be political, sometimes angry
and usually centered around gay male characters. Many were solo
pieces and many never reached mainstream audiences.
Early AIDS works served three main purposes, Roman explains.
They tried to educate audiences about HIV, a fact Kearns is
painfully aware of as he recalls people phoning the theater to find
out if they could catch the virus from being in the same room with
HIV-positive actors.
Many plays were also performed as fund raisers for service
organizations and, finally, many paid homage to friends, lovers and
family members who had died of AIDS.
In this way, theater doubled as therapy. In 1986, Kearns led the
first of several AIDS/U.S. workshops in which people with and
affected by the virus staged performances based on their own
experiences.
"Unlike a play where you’re dealing with a protagonist and a
fictitious story, there were people saying, ‘You better learn about
safe sex’ or ‘Take it from me …’" Kearns says. In 1993’s
AIDS/U.S. Women workshop, "They spouted out a lot of facts that had
never even been in the L.A. Times."
Kearns says that the greatest accomplishment of the workshops
was the sense of catharsis the piece evoked for both audience and
performers. "They could cry, they could laugh at themselves, they
could mourn, they could grieve," Kearns says. "They could do all of
those things in that blackened theater that they couldn’t
necessarily do in a support group, in a church, with their
family."
Kearns has worked with people of nearly every demographic
affected by the disease. It’s been a very deliberate
undertaking.
"About five years into it, I’d heard that gay white male story
told so many times, I was about to scream," Kearns says. "For it to
remain fresh and interesting to me, I had to go look at it in
different cases."
A more diverse take on the disease may be part of the next wave
of AIDS performance. Dennis’s piece presents AIDS-based
discrimination as one of many examples of society’s simple
meanness.
"When I got sick, it was like one more chance for society to put
me down. Being black and gay and now AIDS. I say in my play, ‘How
many times can I be treated like the N-word in one lifetime?’"
Dennis says.
Yet Dennis is adamant that he doesn’t see himself as a victim
and anger is hardly the prevailing emotion in "Don’t Grab the
Gown." As the title suggests, he approaches much of his journey
with humor, another common component of newer AIDS plays.
He rattles off a few lines from the "T-Cell Tango," a song he
wrote which lists the components of a cocktail medication in
dizzying succession. He finishes "…and a protease inhibitor
that’s just right for you."
Kearns’ 1993 play, "Myron, a Fairy Tale in Black and White," has
an air of romantic comedy to it. But as a twist on "Cyrano de
Bergerac," it also juxtaposes inner beauty with physical. Myron is
a 40-ish African American man dying of AIDS. He falls in love with
Rex, his young white caretaker, but is conscious of the racial
difference and his own decaying body.
"’Myron’ is just as much about racism as it is about AIDS,"
Kearns says. He explains that in the gay community, "One of the
issues is looksism … So much has been placed on physical beauty.
And then this disfiguring disease comes along. It’s really
interesting, isn’t it?"
It is interesting, which may be why, in spite of new medical and
theatrical treatments, AIDS theater continues. Kearns is currently
working on a play which he confesses "is a little fluffy," but "I
always go back to AIDS (as subject matter) because if you can say
anything about it, it’s dramatic," Kearns says.
"Theater by its definition is politically incorrect. We’re not
interested in happy, lovely, functional people," Kearns continues.
"What creates drama is somebody who can’t stop having unsafe
sex."
Drama may sometimes be at odds with continual pressure to "get
the message out."
And while many AIDS performances may still have a social agenda,
Roman says that many are geared toward a specific community rather
than society at large. He recalls a play called "About Face,"
recently performed in San Francisco.
"It was primarily by, for and about Asian Americans," Roman
says. "So it was mainly Asian Pacific Islanders – gay, straight,
bi, queer, whatever – who went to see it. I think in terms of the
production’s goals, that would be the level to monitor its
success."
Similarly, Cheryl West’s "Before it Hits Home" profiles an
African American family’s ordeal with AIDS. Mr. and Mrs. Bailey
welcome their son home after many years, only to find out that he
is bisexual and dying of AIDS. While the work can certainly be
classified as an AIDS play, it is arguably just as much about
loyalty, family relationships and the power of parental love.
This follows another trend in AIDS theater, says McClain.
"There’s a contour there where the AIDS question has become more
integrated into a larger understanding of where we are in
life."
This may be the ultimate form of acceptance. But while some
people seem anxious to declare the AIDS epidemic as waning, both
Dennis and Kearns have seen enough to be cautious.
"I trust these drugs for what they’re doing now," Dennis says.
"But I don’t give it too much."
"I think this hopefulness is laced with denial," Kearns adds.
"In a certain way, I feel as compelled now as I did initially when
people weren’t talking about it. Now over a dozen years later,
people aren’t talking about it for a whole other reason … I don’t
think we’ve seen the beginning of what AIDS is going to do."
But whatever course the disease takes, rest assured that Kearns,
Dennis and the artists that follow them will chronicle it all the
way.
AIDS THEATER THROUGHOUT THE AGES 1984 "Warren"by Rebecca Ranson
"The Normal Heart"by Larry Kramer 1985 1986 Micheal Kearns and
James Carrol Pickett begin first AIDS/Us workshop "Before It Hits
Home"by Cheryl West 1992 "Angels in America"by Tony Kushner "Myron,
a Fairy Tale in Black and White"by Michael Kearns 1993 1996
"Rent"by Johnathan Larson "Don’t Grab the Gown Until You See the
Gurney"by Ronald Dennis 1997