Mark S. King Among Playwrights Featured with National Queer Theater’s ‘Write It Out’ at New York’s LGBT Center
Reprinted with permission from Mark S. King’s My Fabulous Disease
The Emotional Triumph of Playwrights Living with HIV
You should know the end of the story first, because the ending demands to be heard. It took place last month in the largest event space at The LGBT Center in New York City, where hundreds of people were excitedly greeting each other, grazing at the food table or sitting in rapturous anticipation for a unique evening of theater.
Over the course of the next two hours, seven pairs of actors would take turns on stage, presenting individual scenes filled with insight, humor, and moments of joyful, sometimes painful truth.
The night was a triumph. There was laughter, emotional silences, nods of recognition and roars of approval. Those roars were only multiplied when, after the final scene, the playwrights who wrote the seven scenes were invited to the stage.
The playwrights were new to this. Some had never before written a theatrical scene. Some had traveled across the country to be there. And each and every one of them was living with HIV. They stood together, holding hands, while the packed audience cheered thunderously. It is a sound that would ring in the grinning playwrights’ ears for days to come.
Welcome to the climactic evening of “Write it Out!,” a program created by playwright Donja R. Love (One in Two) and co-facilitated by playwright Lee Raines, in which aspiring writers living with HIV are selected to participate in months of online sessions that teach the basics of playwriting. The program culminates with a two-person scene written by each writer that is presented to a public audience. Several past participants have developed their scenes into produced plays.
And if this intrigues you, regardless of your level of experience writing a play, then I suggest you visit the Write It Out! web site right now and find out more. There is no cost to participants because the program is generously underwritten by sponsors.
I was one of the playwrights standing on the stage at The Center last month. It still feels strange to even refer to myself as a playwright, but this program gave me the support and confidence to believe I could do it. A lot of that confidence comes from program leaders Love and Raines, who went far beyond simple instruction on technique. They convinced us all we had something to say, and that theater was the medium to say it.
CONTINUE READING AT MY FABULOUS DISEASE
MARK S. KING is an award winning blogger, author, speaker, and HIV/AIDS activist who has been involved in HIV causes since testing positive in 1985. King was named the 2020 LGBTQ Journalist of the Year by the National Lesbian and Gay Journalist Association (NLGJA), which also awarded King their “Excellence in Blogging” honor in 2014, 2016 and 2020. My Fabulous Disease won the 2020 GLAAD Award for Outstanding Blog after five consecutive nominations, and was named one of 2020’s “OUT100” by OUT Magazine.
King’s new collection of essays, My Fabulous Disease: Chronicles of a Gay Survivor, will be released on September 1, 2023 and is available now to pre-order from online sites or your favorite bookstore.
King is a sought-after speaker (get information on his speaking events and availability here) and advocacy journalist who has traveled the globe to report from conferences and speak to colleges, organizations, and groups of people living with HIV.
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