CSU theater examines HIV/AIDS epidemic discrimination

By Christian Arndt @csucollegian

With HIV/AIDS awareness still lacking within our society, Colorado State University’s latest theater production of Larry Kramer’s “ e Normal Heart” brings this issue to light in a very real tale of discrimination, underrepresentation and injustice.

“ e Normal Heart” premieres 7:30 p.m. Feb. 24 at Colorado State University’s Studio eatre at the University Center for the Arts and offers free admission to CSU students.

e production is a stage play created by Larry Kramer that was released in 1985. e story tackles the HIV/AIDS epidemic in New York City throughout the 1980s, which was something not a lot of people recognized or took action against mostly because of the group it was associated with during that time.

e story centers around Ned Weeks, an HIV/AIDS awareness activist and a prominent voice for the LGBTQ+ community during the 1980s.

Kramer’s push for HIV/AIDS awareness and his consistent presence in the LGBTQ+ community inspired him to write this stage play. Due to the injustices he experienced, “ e Normal Heart” came to be.

is prompted Wesley Longacre, director of CSU’s “ e Normal Heart,” to spearhead the play and bring the inhumane experiences to light.

Longacre reflected on the production and the overall message of the play.

“I think at the heart of it, it’s just this really human story,” Longacre said. “ ese were, specifically in ‘ e Normal Heart,’ gay men. ese were just men who were wanting to live their lives. ey wanted to love who they love, and they were wanting to have the basic human rights that we all deserve.”

As Kramer was such a prominent figure in the LGBTQ+ community, “ e Normal Heart” shares the story with accuracy and power.

“ is is a piece of LGBTQIA+ history that really needs to be told,” Longacre said.

Peter Young, a junior at CSU who plays the character Ned Weeks, offered his perspective on the perception of HIV/AIDS.

“For audience goers, I think the importance of the show, in this character especially, is being able to understand that this did happen,” Young said. “I can’t even count the amount of people who I’ve told about this show who are from my hometown or anything like that who are like, “Wait, that happened?” which is extraordinarily surprising to me because HIV/ AIDS is a huge disease that people just don’t know about.”

HIV is commonly misunderstood to be a disease only transmitted through gay sex, which is not the case. e premise of “ e Normal Heart” speaks to this issue, which is commonly used to attack the LGBTQ+ community.

Arina Bratkovska, a senior at CSU who plays Emma Brookner, reflected on the weight of this play and what it means to so many people.

“ e most important thing is that this is not just the issue of the ‘80s. ere is still no cure to AIDS,” Bratkovka said. “ is is still happening to this day. Every day, people’s lives get lost to something that could possibly be prevented (with) ... better communication from authorities, government and professionals had they taken it seriously.”

“ e Normal Heart” is much more than a production. It is a message about the lives lost due to the negligence and discrimination of the greater public.

“It shows everything that didn’t happen because we lost so many lives of young men and women,” Bratkovska said. “ e art that was lost, the stories that were never told and the lives that were disregarded. What better way to shine a light on that than theater?”

Reach Christian Arndt at entertainment@collegian.com.

“AIDS isn’t even a disease that is just for homosexuals,” Young said. “It is luckily now sort of destigmatized. However, it is still used against the community, unfortunately.”