Dates
Dec 6, 7 p.m.In New York City in the 1980’s artists were overwhelmingly affected by AIDS. Entire performing companies were destroyed. A generation of creative people disappeared. In the early days, media outlets were unwilling to give the appropriate attention to AIDS. The combination of sex and death seemed more difficult to write about because the community most affected by AIDS was gay. As a result, AIDS prevention and treatment were delayed and many thousands lost their lives to this horrible disease.
In 1981, AIDS was officially recognized as a disease. To mark the 30th anniversary of AIDS recognition, our Dallas performing arts community has “gathered to celebrate the progress made in AIDS treatment and prevention and to raise money for local AIDS organizations: AIDS Arms, AIDS Interfaith Network, AIDS Services of Dallas, and Resource Center Dallas.” “Gatherings,” as this one night event is titled, will take place at the Winspear Opera House on Tuesday, December 6. The entire production is a volunteer effort by artists, the host theater, producers, directors, and organizers. One-hundred percent of all the proceeds will be distributed amongst the four AIDS organizations during the evening’s performance.
Last night’s press preview included rehearsals by vocalists, dancers from SMU and Booker T Washington, and Dallas Theater Center actors. This first gathering for “Gatherings” took place in the Wyly rehearsal studio, a large rectangular, concrete room with two walls covered by lime green curtains, a stretch of body length mirrors on another, and floor to ceiling glass windows that look out over the Dallas Arts District. Dean of SMU’s Meadows Jose Bowen sat at the piano, seamlessly playing through the entire two-and-a-half hour program as the various artists performed in front of him.
Between each segment Dallas Theater Center actors presented AIDS timeline monologues defining the battle against ignorance, bigotry, and hate towards those infected with this disease. Their script is a carefully calculated blend of humor, severity, and a hint of political bias placing all negative AIDS quotes squarely on representatives of the Republican Party. It is hard not to wonder why this celebration wasted time trying to score political points. Will this help us isolate a cure for the virus or raise funds for AIDS?
Local choreographer, Bruce Wood has created three new pieces for “Gatherings.” Amongst them, “Chopin Prelude in E minor Opus 28/4,” a solo dance by Kimi Nikaidoh, will be performed in front of the AIDS Memorial Quilt courtesy of C.U.R.E., Community, Unity, Respect, Education. Wood was an artist living in New York during the height of the AIDS pandemic, and he was part of the original inspired team to put this fundraiser together. “It started out with four of us wanting to do something for the 30th anniversary, and it just ballooned,” he said.
While the enthusiasm of these artists in undeniable, when the curtain closes and the theater is dark, will this event have had the desired impact on AIDS awareness in the greater Dallas area? To adequately respond we need to ask the stake holders. Who are they? Are they the doctors seeking funds for research, or the social services seeking underwriting? Or are they perhaps the youth of today and tomorrow who have grown all too comfortable now that the growth of the AIDS pandemic has been scaled back? If this concert makes us aware of anything it is that one concert is not enough to reach out to all these different groups. We need more events like this one, art threaded through with history (and ideally void of blame games) to keep us aware, humble, and alive.
Here’s a full list of performers:
Producers: Charles Santos (TITAS), Joe Ferrell (DTC), and Chris Heinbaugh (ATTPAC) have assembled a cast of almost 200 performers representing a dozen performing Arts organizations. The participating groups include:
Booker T Washington High School for The Performing and Visual Arts
Bruce Wood Dance Project
Dallas Black Dance Theater
Dallas Opera
Dallas Theater Center
Texas Ballet Theater
SMU Meadows School of the Arts
TITAS
Turtle Creek Choral
Charlieuniformtang
AT&T Performing Arts Center
As well as many independent artists
Dallas Children's Theater's 2012-2013 Season Features Puppet Nutcracker, Goodnight Moon and A Wrinkle In Time Adaptation
God of Carnage
Dallas Theater Center Adds Two Actors To Brierley Resident Company
Ticket Giveaway: Kristin Chenoweth Takes The Stage at The Winspear
7 comments
Great article Danna !! I’m with you. I don’t understand why anyone would want to politicize such an important issue. This isn’t a left or right thing, it’s a HUMAN thing.
Hope that the community supports this gigantic effort. Very important for the arts and for this devastating disease,neither supported enough in the past but hopefully embraced in the future
This is the first community-wide fundraiser for AIDS since March, 1989. That was Dallas Cares. It saved our proverbial financial butts in 1989. That was before Ryan White and HUD’s Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS hit the trenches in 1991 and 1992. Those were awful days, in so many ways.
We sincerely appreciate the efforts of Charles, Chris and all the others who’ve pulled this all together. I’m looking forward to the event – and to seeing Winspear for the first time. Thank you all.
Danna, I am always proud of you. One day you may yet get to write that biography you so want to do. Of your grandfather. This sets the target of the heights you write at.
How could one possibly relate the history of this disease without relating the awful truths about the response (or lack thereof) of our national leaders during the 80′s? And who were those leaders?
Start with Ronald Reagan and go down from there.
The shame of their wilful ignorance is a stain on the political leaders of that era. No amount of historical revisionism today should be allowed to erase that stain. If we forget that bad behavior, then we will never learn from it.
@Bob,
History is a collection of sequential facts. It should never be rewritten, period! On that you and I are violent agreement.
Here is where we may, perhaps, diverge. If the stated purpose of this “Gathering” is to raise money (from citizens of the Dallas community at-large, not just those who vote democrat) for AIDS organizations, through collaborative performance by local performing arts groups and individuals, then the inclusion of political rhetoric is counter-productive. That’s not to say it isn’t a part of the history just unnecessarily, divisive thereby diminishing the value of the experience which in turn could generate less fundraising dollars.
Respectfully,
Danna Reubin
@Dana–
My understanding is that the primary purpose of the event is to bring together some of Dallas’ finest artists to remember and reflect on the AIDS pandemic. The fund-raising aspect of the event is a worthy but secondary purpose. Because the arts community suffered more losses than perhaps other communities, its remembrance and reflection undertandably would include mention of the historical context of those losses. I understand that history can be divisive–look at the continuing emotional controversies involving the role of the Confederate flag in our history.
Some things are not just about money, and remembering and reflecting on what we as a people did and did not do in confronting the onset of AIDS must continue to be acknowledged in any discussion of this issue.