Appropriately Inappropriate
Art as disruption. Disruption as education.
Photography by Michael Hull
Keith Haring’s ‘Once Upon A Time’ Bathroom Mural provides the appropriately inappropriate backdrop for the cast of the December 1 benefit reading of Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart.
These two AIDS-era artistic masterpieces about sexual expression, oppression, and liberation for the LGBT+ community are meant to shock and disrupt, celebrate the taboo, and inspire audiences out of complacency and into action in the face of a crisis. They are artistic responses to the harsh realities of a 1980s world that valued being “appropriate” over the value of a human life.
The star-studded cast (pictured) bringing this production to life is support by a team of student-interns enrolled in the CENTER BAE program, a collaboration between Broadway for Arts Education (BAE), The LGBT Center, and the Terrie Hess Child Advocacy Center. The program is designed to introduce LGBTQIA+ youth to various jobs within the theater industry, to develop professional skills through mentorship and project-based learning alongside Broadway professionals, and to learn how to communicate clearly, concisely, and creatively about their professional assets, aspirations, and boundaries.
But is Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart the appropriate educational vehicle? Is it too disruptive and explicit a piece to be produced by young people?
“When I first shared the play with our interns, I was worried about how they would respond to the graphic depiction of the AIDS epidemic, but I was shocked at how little they knew about crisis at all,” says program facilitator and BAE executive director, Ben Houghton. “Then I remembered that I was also never taught about this important chapter of gay history in school. I learned about it through plays, movies, artwork, and songs, making it especially meaningful to me to have this group of LGBTQIA+ youth bring this story to life and steward it along to future generations.”
It’s a sentiment shared by the play’s author, Larry Kramer. Of the 2011 Broadway revival, he remarked, “What has been especially moving to me is that you have enabled so many of my people to come and learn our history. We have been a people singularly denied the right to know our history, and it continues to be my mission to bring this history to my people and the world.”
Kramer then went on to thank producer Daryl Roth (mother of Jordan Roth, who plays Mickey Marcus in the production) for being especially determined, and successful, in finding ways to bring young people to see this play. “Learn from it and carry on the fight. Let them know that we are a very special people, an exceptional people. And that our day will come,” writes Kramer in the plays dedication. The fight in 2023 is vastly different than in the 1980s, but it is just as necessary and just as inappropriately appropriate for this next generation of queer theater-makers who carry on the legacy.
Tickets can be purchased at: https://secure.givelively.org/event/broadway-for-arts-education/larry-kramer-s-the-normal-heart
The cast will include seven-time Tony Award-winning Jordan Roth (Jujamcyn Theatres), Tony Award-winning Randy Graff (Mr. Saturday Night), Matthew Corozine (Matthew Corozine Studio), multiple Tony Award-winning producer Larry Rogowsky (Merrily We Roll Along, The Outsiders), Bryan Campione (creative director, Playbill), Julie James (SiriusXM), Tom Berklund (The Addams Family), Obie Award-Winning Elijah Caldwell (A Strange Loop, off-Broadway), Adam Dulin-Tavares, Kyle Pickett (Head of Glamazon NYC), Kal Kalil, Damon Clyde (OutRight Action International), and drag legend Rose Levine. Cast members also include Coulby Jenkins, Lynda DeFuria, Patrick Clark, Matthew Labanca, Benny Enfinger, Brett Radek, Nathan Nolen Edwards, Steve Riggle, Alex Quiroga, Dylan Hoffinger, and Xiao Xiao Sun.
Youth Interns: Jermy Quiroz, Alastair Feliciano, Irati Castaneda, Nicole Ruiz, AJ Sinclair, Bo de La Rosa, Alley Long, Gabriela Vivanco, Eva, Nat, Reilly, and Artie Brown.
Isaac Byrne directs the evening, with Haley Rice acting as Assistant Director, Stage Management by Darius-Anthony Robinson and Elena Sartor, Lighting Design by Zach Pizza, Sound Design by Vrialto, Casting by Tessa Faye Talent, LLC, Graphic Design by Sarah Faye Beard, Music Direction by David Baldwin, Production Assistance by Trevor Markanovic.
The event is made possible by Straighten Your Crown Productions, Broadway for Arts Education, and SoEpitome.
