‘The Normal Heart’ to be staged at UW-Stevens Point
A political thriller about a small group of friends who band together to battle ignorance, fear and government indifference will be performed Feb. 10-12 and 15-18 at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
“The Normal Heart,” a 2011 Tony Award-winning play about the early years of the AIDS crisis, will be staged by the Theatre and Dance Department in the Noel Fine Arts Center Studio Theatre. Performances will be held at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 10–11; and Wednesday thru Saturday, Feb. 15–18. A 2 p.m. matinee will be performed Sunday, Feb. 12.
Tickets are $17 for adults, $16 for senior citizens and $12 for students (or free with a UWSP student ID if tickets are available the day of the show) and are available at the Information and Tickets Office in the Dreyfus University Center, online or by calling 715-346-4100 or 800-838-3378. The show is not appropriate for young audiences.
“The Normal Heart” focuses on how gay activist Ned Weeks (played by senior theatre major Zachary Woods of Oconomowoc) strives in vain to bring attention to a then-unknown disease that is killing many of his friends and members of New York’s gay community. Along with friends, he starts an organization to bring the crisis to the attention of the media and government, and they begin working with Dr. Emma Brookner (played by sophomore theatre major Hanna Gaffney of Oconomowoc). Weeks also faces some of his own personal crises during this time.
Playwright and novelist Larry Kramer based his story on real events and real people, including himself. First staged off-Broadway in 1985, the play’s revival at the Golden Theatre on Broadway in 2011 won Tony Awards for Best Revival, Best Featured Actor and Best Featured Actress, as well as three Drama Desk Awards. A film version is now in the works.
Theatre and Dance Professor Steve Trovillion Smith, who is directing the play and performed in the lead role in Chicago, hopes the production gets people talking about the epidemic. “When AIDS first hit New York, no one was talking about it or addressing the issues,” he said. “There was no research because it was perceived as a ‘gay disease.’ This play reflects the homophobia and discrimination still going on. It’s intense, edgy political drama.”
The walls surrounding the Studio Theatre stage provide a canvas for the political slogans and graffiti of the early 80s, Smith says, and in between each scene, the growing death toll from AIDS is projected on the walls as well.
For the UW-Stevens Point student cast of ten men and one woman, the show is bringing history to light as they research the real people on which their characters are based.
“Dr. Linda Laubenstein, the woman my character is based on, was an astounding lady,” said Gaffney. “She contracted polio when she was five years old and had serious asthma problems, yet that never hindered her from becoming one of the pioneers in the medical field around the AIDS crisis.”
“Everyone needs to know that AIDS affects all people, not just gay people,” said Smith. “Millions have died of AIDS, and last year we marked the 30th anniversary of the crisis.”
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