Windy City Media Group Frontpage News

THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

home search facebook twitter join
Gay News Sponsor Windy City Times 2023-12-13
DOWNLOAD ISSUE
Donate

Sponsor
Sponsor
Sponsor

  WINDY CITY TIMES

'The Last Session' musical tackles AIDS
by Karen Topham
2018-10-24

This article shared 1970 times since Wed Oct 24, 2018
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email


More than 675,000 people in the United States have died of HIV/AIDS since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in the '80s according to the Center for Disease Control. Another 1.2 million Americans currently live with the virus.

Yet the further away we withdraw from the original crisis, the less that average Americans know about both the disease and its history. Enter Refuge Theatre Company and Artistic Director Chris Pazdernik, who open the AIDS-related musical The Last Session on Thursday, Oct. 25. Pazdernik, who was diagnosed with HIV in 2009, said that the diagnosis threw him into a state of urgent info-gathering.

"In addition to learning what I could historically, I sought out pieces of art dealing with it, which is how I came across The Last Session," he said. "It's an incredibly beautiful show, but more than that, I think it's an incredibly important story: an origin story of the people who came and fought for us. It's important to honor those stories and not forget them."

Penned by Jim Brochu and set in 1996, The Last Session focuses on Gideon ( played by Eric Pearson ), a character modeled on songwriter Brochu's husband, Steve Schalchlin. Gideon is tired of fighting against AIDS-related diseases, so he decides to record his songs in one last recording session before killing himself and invites some friends to help him with the session. Pazdernik hopes the production will be "a gateway for the audience into learning more about this very pivotal time in queer history."

In order to prepare his cast for a show about a subject they didn't live through, Pazdernik showed them the documentary How to Survive a Plague. He also brought in friends who had lost partners during the pandemic, and had them talk to the cast "so that the actors could get a better sense of the urgency and anger and death that was taking place at the time of the play."

The death toll hit the cast hard, Pazdernik said: "Exactly how many lives were lost is sort of unfathomable. Another thing that stood out was the generosity of the people who were fighting, knowing that they might not live long enough to see the fruits of their labor. They were trying to make a better world for the people who came after them. As a healthy survivor I feel an incredible debt of gratitude to them."

Pearson, who is also musical director, was on the brink of entering college in 1996, the show's setting. Alone among the cast, he has personal memories of the tail end of the AIDS crisis. Still, Pearson said the play opened his eyes to many things he'd overlooked earlier in his life. "The actual extent of the activism and the timeline of how long things took to get to get to any action, and the details of the pharmaceutical regimens: That information has been really eye-opening," he said.

The younger actors, too, have been struck by the extent of the activism. "The reaction of the general public was very inspiring," said Darilyn Burtley, who plays Tryshia, a friend of Gideon and the mother of his Godchild. "Everyday citizens put their own bodies on the line and made the change."

Ryan Armstrong plays Buddy, a Bible Belt Christian character he described as "somewhat of an antagonist."

"It's shocking because you didn't realize how hard these people were trying to get the care they needed and to get the research for all the medicine that was or was not being put out there at the time."

He said that another thing that surprised him was how little was known about the disease at the start. "The whole idea that you could get it from toilet seats; they didn't know if you could get it by touching, by breathing the same air. ... I can feel that Christian fear that people felt about that stuff."

Of course, the center of the play is Gideon and his struggle: "He talks about how exhausted he is with the ravages of this disease and the pharmaceutical hoops he's having to jump through. The whole impetus for the 'last session' is how exhausting this living in a state of not-quite-dead is for him."

He says that this is a play that will resonate with today's audiences who are concerned about "the fear that not as much as we'd hoped has changed, in particular about universal healthcare and what feels like a willful ignorance about how that affects the population at large and what privilege actually affords."

The other actors concurred. Burtley said that "it's hard to watch these documentaries and see the people putting their bodies in the way of revolution and not be inspired, especially today when lots of people are feeling hopeless and depressed and feeling like they have no say and are pretty helpless." Armstrong feels "the outrage" that "the gay community has been struggling for years and years but in a way it doesn't seem much different."

It's that last notion that has led Pazdernik to partner with Howard Brown Health, the AIDS Foundation of Chicago and Season of Concern to help bring awareness to the work that those organizations are doing. He said that people need to "understand that there is still a lot we have to do: it has not been cured; it has not gone away; it's still very much a part of our community."

Armstrong said he hopes that the show will "give people ideas about American history that is often glossed over; it's good today to look back and see the struggle that these people went through. It's also a loving story with great characters and great music."

Pearson agreed, saying, "It's been really good for me to go back and remember and to learn more about this collective past. I'm glad to share that because we have a habit of forgetting history."

The Last Session will be presented in the non-traditional setting of Atlas Art Studio's recording studio, where Pazdernik hoped that "people will feel like they are really there during the recording session that is the action of the play." Due to the dramaturgic decisions that he has made, his actors already feel the immediacy of the show.

"It connects to today," said Burtley. "If people put their minds to it and join in for a common cause, no matter what the government says, no matter what any corporation says, everyday, normal civilians can make the change."

The Last Sessions runs Oct. 26-Dec. 2 at Altas Arts Media, 4809 N. Ravenswood Ave. Tickets are $15-$30; visit RefugeTheatre.com .


This article shared 1970 times since Wed Oct 24, 2018
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email

Out and Aging
Presented By

  ARTICLES YOU MIGHT LIKE

Gay News

JP Karliak morphs into non-binary character for Disney+'s X-Men '97
2024-03-22
series X-Men '97, a revival of the popular X-men: The Animated Series that's both continuing the ongoing mutant storyline and breaking new ground along the way. The character of Morph now looks more like the comic ...


Gay News

WORLD Uganda items, HIV report, Mandela, Liechtenstein, foreign minister weds
2024-03-21
It turned out that U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Senior LGBTQI+ Coordinator Jay Gilliam traveled to Uganda on Feb. 19-27, per The Washington Blade. He visited the capital of Kampala and the nearby city of ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ Queer musicians, Marvel situation, Elliot Page, Nicole Kidman
2024-03-21
Queer musician Joy Oladokun released the single "I Wished on the Moon," from Jack Antonoff's official soundtrack for the new Apple TV+ series The New Look, per a press release. The soundtrack, ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ Lady Gaga, 'P-Valley,' Wendy Williams, Luke Evans, 'Queer Eye,' 'Transition'
2024-03-15
Lady Gaga came to the defense of Dylan Mulvaney after a post with the trans influencer/activist for International Women's Day received hateful responses, People Magazine noted. On Instagram, Gaga stated, "It's appalling to me that a ...


Gay News

Longtime LGBTQ+-rights activist David Mixner dies at 77
2024-03-12
On March 11, longtime LGBTQ+ and HIV/AIDS activist David Mixner—known for working on Bill Clinton's presidential campaign but then splitting from him over "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT)—died at age 77, The Advocate reported. ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ Jinkx Monsoon, Xavier Dolan, 'Frida,' Lena Waithe, out singer
2024-03-08
Two-time RuPaul's Drag Race winner Jinkx Monsoon is headed back to the New York stage, joining off-Broadway's Little Shop of Horrors as Audrey beginning April 2, according to Playbill. The casting makes Monsoon the first drag ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ Queer actors, icons duet, Hunter Schafer, Oscars, Elizabeth Taylor
2024-03-01
Queer actor Kal Penn is set to star in Trust Me, I'm a Doctor—a film that chronicles the final days of actress/model Anna Nicole Smith, whose overdose death in 2007 at age 39 sparked a tabloid ...


Gay News

Dorian Film Awards: 'All of Us Strangers' takes top prizes
2024-02-27
February 26, 2024 - Los Angeles, Ca. - For its 15th Dorian Film Awards, GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics fully embraced All of Us Strangers, writer-director Andrew Haigh's fantastical and tear-inducing tale of two ...


Gay News

SAG Awards honor Streisand, few LGBTQ+ actors
2024-02-25
Queer entertainers made their mark—although not a major one—at the 2024 Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards, held Feb. 24 in Los Angeles. The event was live-streamed on Netflix for the first time. Indigenous and Two-Spirit actor ...


Gay News

WORLD Caribbean ruling, Pussy Riot, Russian raid, Canadian warning, anti-trans bar
2024-02-23
The top court in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines dismissed a challenge to colonial-era anti-gay laws, Reuters reported. Javin Johnson and Sean Macleish—two gay men who had pushed to decriminalize ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ Kristen Stewart, Rock Hudson, Talia Keys, 'True Detective,' Marvel comic
2024-02-23
At the Berlin Film Festival, Kristen Stewart defended her photo shoot for a Rolling Stone magazine cover that went viral and divided audiences on social-media platforms, per The Hollywood Reporter. "The existence of a female body ...


Gay News

HIV criminal laws disproportionately impact Black men in Mississippi
2024-02-21
--From a press release - A new report by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law finds that at least 43 people in Mississippi were arrested for HIV-related crimes between 2004 and 2021. Half of all arrests in the state ...


Gay News

'West Side Story' gets a sex-positive spin with new burlesque show
2024-02-19
In partial observance of National Condom Day, which was Feb. 14, Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) presented A West Side Story Burlesque at the Harris Theater for two hour-long performances on Feb. 17. The show, ...


Gay News

Second Glance Productions hosts LGBTQupid Soiree
2024-02-16
In celebration of Valentine's Day, Chicago based film and media production company Second Glance hosted The LBGTQupid Soiree. The event, which was focused on spinning attitudes on this particular day, was presented at The iO ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ Elton John, Hannah Gadsby, video game, Jennifer Lopez, queer thriller
2024-02-16
Video below - Sir Elton John has sold his Atlanta home and is now auctioning off more than 900 of his personal items that were kept in the 13,500-square-foot condo, The Daily Mail noted. The massive collection includes rare ...


 


Copyright © 2024 Windy City Media Group. All rights reserved.
Reprint by permission only. PDFs for back issues are downloadable from
our online archives.

Return postage must accompany all manuscripts, drawings, and
photographs submitted if they are to be returned, and no
responsibility may be assumed for unsolicited materials.

All rights to letters, art and photos sent to Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago
Gay and Lesbian News and Feature Publication) will be treated
as unconditionally assigned for publication purposes and as such,
subject to editing and comment. The opinions expressed by the
columnists, cartoonists, letter writers, and commentators are
their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay,
Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature Publication).

The appearance of a name, image or photo of a person or group in
Nightspots (Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times
(a Chicago Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature
Publication) does not indicate the sexual orientation of such
individuals or groups. While we encourage readers to support the
advertisers who make this newspaper possible, Nightspots (Chicago
GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay, Lesbian
News and Feature Publication) cannot accept responsibility for
any advertising claims or promotions.

 
 

TRENDINGBREAKINGPHOTOS







Sponsor


 



Donate


About WCMG      Contact Us      Online Front  Page      Windy City  Times      Nightspots
Identity      BLACKlines      En La Vida      Archives      Advanced Search     
Windy City Queercast      Queercast Archives     
Press  Releases      Join WCMG  Email List      Email Blast      Blogs     
Upcoming Events      Todays Events      Ongoing Events      Bar Guide      Community Groups      In Memoriam     
Privacy Policy     

Windy City Media Group publishes Windy City Times,
The Bi-Weekly Voice of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans Community.
5315 N. Clark St. #192, Chicago, IL 60640-2113 • PH (773) 871-7610 • FAX (773) 871-7609.