The Official Raúl E. Esparza "Spread the Love" Thread — Page 428

Skittles, I love your signature.

I can't get tickets yet because I have to wait for the rehearsal schedule for Anything Goes. I hope they aren't sold out by the time I can order tickets. And I would love to make it to a show with a talkback afterwords. John Doyle is f*cking brilliant.

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hm.

Well, it's always worth a shot. They mgith sign from the stage after the talkback, or something.

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I read The Normal Heart today. I'm still recovering, but overall it was just so devastating and angering. You wonder, "How could this have been allowed to happen, and why did the people who could've done something turn their backs the other way?" I don't ordinarily like reading plays because there's so little in character description and development since those things are supplied to some extent by the actors, but I really liked this one.

I was surprised that Ned's character, while possessing quite a temper, was much more likable and less abrasive than I'd expected based on what I'd read--he's still the heroic center of the story and at least he's willing to fight for something (although a lot of this perception is probably based on the benefit of hindsight). The love story was beautiful and painful. I cried, a lot. I also had some moments where I wondered how the actors reconciled themselves with some of the ideas in this play...

And now I'm sort of depressed to think that we're still dealing with a lot of the same gay rights issues today that we were in the mid-'80s, with the added danger that AIDS has fallen out of the media's attention. I really wish this play had had a longer run, not least because I'd love to have seen it, but also because it's such a wake-up call. This isn't the sort of thing that you read about in history books, so while I'd heard about it in vague terms a lot of it was new to me. The script is a great piece of writing, and I'm sure it's even more powerful on stage.

Raul played Ned to the extremes, with those polar opposites. He would go from being sweet and cuddly one moment to simply on fire with anger the next. I loved that he brought out the more lovable side of Ned, though, because it gave you another reason to root for him.

I don't know what I would've felt if I had read the play before I saw it. I knew what the basic subject matter was, but I didn't know that it was so intense and painful. Before that, the only other token AIDS play I'd ever read was Angels in America, which is so much more positive. I read it for the first time a week or so after I saw the play, and I couldn't help but hear Raul's voice, and picture the production, and in all senses of the cliche, put myself back there.

I still, nearly two years later, don't think I've ever experienced another theatrical event like that. I probably never will, either.

The scariest thing for me was when I read Larry Kramer's novel, Faggots, about a year and a half after I saw the play. The novel was written in the mid 70's, I believe, condeming the same promiscuity that Ned speaks out against. But what's so eerie about it is that Kramer bssically, in this novel, predicted the onset of AIDS.

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Updated On: 1/21/06 at 08:03 PM

What's the anthology called?

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"The Way We Live Now; American Plays & the Aids Crisis"

It doesn't have TNH because Larry Kramer wouldn't let them put it in for some reason. However, it has 10 other plays/excerpts. I've only read "As Is", so far. The introduction is very thought-provoking and moving.

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I'd still really love to see a production of TNH. I wonder if it's a very widely-done play.

I also got The Shape of Me when I was at the library this morning, but given that I devoted a day to reading something non-school related and got no work done, that one will have to wait a while.

Do you know why?

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I think he was unhappy with the way things ended with the revival -- reception-wise. The play got rave reviews, but the reception on a grander scale was so small. He once said something about being angry with the state of theatre -- fluffy crap can survive, but such an important play can't.

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It should have moved to Broadway.

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I know! That's what makes it so frustrating. And Raul would have had his Tony.

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Exactly. *pout*

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