THEATRE + COMEDY

Theatre New West will present a Staged Reading of The Normal Heart at Stages Repertory Theatre, on Dec. 1, 2010. The reading will be to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the play and will be presented on World AIDS Day, December 1st. The Reading will benefit Houston GLBT Community Center.

NEW MEMBERS HAVE JOINED THE CAST OF THE READING: St. John Flynn, on-air personality and Director of Cultural Programming at KUHF-FM, will read the role of Bruce Niles. Roy Hamlin,  Associate Artistic Director of Theatre Under the Stars will read the role of Narrator/Stage Directions.

UPDATE:  Representative Jessica Farrar joins event as honorary chair. Texas Representative Jessica Farrar (District 148) is honorary chair of the event. Rep. Farrar is serving her eighth term in the Texas House of Representatives.

The New York Times announced a Broadway Cast Reading to be held in October, to be directed by Joel Grey, who took over the role of Ned, in the original production, after Brad Davis, the original Ned, died of AIDS. Tim Brookover, President of the Board of Houston GLBT Community Center, saw the article, published in July, about the New York reading. He then contacted Joe Watts who had produced a much lauded (see review quotes below), production of the play in 2006. Asking if he would present a reading for Houston, and as a benefit for the Community Center. Joe polled cast members of that production, who all agreed to come on board for the reading, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Then a venue was needed for the reading. Stages Repertory Theatre, in support of the production and the Community Center, is graciously donating their Arena Stage theater for the reading.

The Normal Heart, by Larry Kramer, is an explosive drama about our most terrifying and troubled medical crisis: the AIDS epidemic. It tells the story of very private lives caught up in the heartrending ordeal of suffering and doom-an ordeal that was largely ignored for reasons of politics and majority morality. The play’s central character Ned Weeks, written as Kramer’s image of himself, becomes a leader in the AIDS awareness movement after witnessing the horrific plague deteriorate the gay community. The play is also a love story, between Ned and Felix, his first and only love.

“At the heart of THE NORMAL HEART, the element that gives this powerful political play its essence, is love-love holding firm under fire, put to the ultimate test, facing and overcoming our greatest fear: death. I love the ardor of this play, its howling, its terror and its kindness. It makes me very proud to be its producer and caretaker”. Joseph Papp, original producer at the New York Shakespeare Festival.

There will be a pre-show reception, plus a Talk Back after the performance with the Director, Cast, a representative from Aids Foundation Houston and a doctor that treats HIV/AIDS patients.

Quotes from Reviews of THE NORMAL HEART Produced by Theatre New West in the fall of 2006:

“Heart Stopper-Theatre New West presents Larry Kramer’s revenge-and his testament.”

“Theatre New West’s production, under the stylish and prudent direction of Joe Watts, is everything Kramer's drama aims to be, and then some. In the intimate space of the Bering & James Gallery, the play is right in our faces. The downsizing condenses the heat and focuses the message. With Watts' lower-wattage approach, the anger and frustration, so much an essential element in Kramer, is accumulative; intensity remains, but without resorting to screams and rants. The play builds inexorably, so that the final scene, the quiet hospital-bedside wedding between protagonist Ned (Steve Bullitt) and dying partner Felix (Joseph Zoellers), becomes overwhelming—the distillation of all that's come before. It has show stopping (and heart stopping) impact.

“The production is marvelously cast with an acting dream team. Bullitt's self-effacing dignity grounds them all. He’s not as prickly as the real-life Kramer, and his subtler indignation and frustration give Ned more sympathy. Warm and believable, he's one of us, not a legend descending from on high with holy commandments. When he incants the list of renowned gay men throughout history (the play's most quoted scene): "I belong to a culture that includes Proust, Henry James, Tchaikovsky, Cole Porter, Plato, Socrates," Bullitt's clenched-jaw reading is as deafening as a thunder clap.” D. L. Groover, Houston Press

“With a stellar cast and superb direction, Theatre New West’s production of The Normal Heart is compelling and chilling. Steve Bullitt delivers a brilliant portrayal of activist Ned Weeks, making the audience feel directly involved in his cause.

“Watts is realizing his dream with his masterful direction of The Normal Heart. He, like Kramer, is a leader in the AIDS awareness movement. The year Kramer's play made its debut in New York (1985),Watts produced and directed the first AIDS themed play in Houston—a one-man production about a man living with the disease entitled One. The Houston Post named the production in it’s TOP 10 of that year. The production was the first “theater benefit” for the newly formed KS/AIDS Foundation, which is now AIDS Foundation Houston. Though the face of AIDS in our nation has changed dramatically since the virus was first identified twenty-five years ago, The Normal Heart still beats powerfully.” Isabel Rougeau, ArtsHouston