Acting Out: No Anachronisms, Please!

If you've ever wondered what it was like to attend an ACT UP meeting during the height of the AIDS epidemic, then David Wise's "Fight Back" is the immersive outing for you. 

There are no actors and no script. Instead, each attendee is assigned a real-life persona ahead of time, whose level of participation you work out with David in the days leading up to the event.

From the second you arrive at the New York LGBT Community Center in the West Village, everyone is asked to live and breathe in character as if it's March 13, 1989 -- and we're all getting together to organize the next big protest of Mayor Ed Koch's impotent policies outside City Hall. 

Even your small talk has to be time-specific (suggested topics): 

"Did you hear that Robert Mapplethorpe died this week?" 

"Do you think Pepsi will pull Madonna's 'Like a Prayer' commercial because conservative groups are calling it blasphemous?" 

"Are you going to go see Jerome Robbins' Broadway?"

Though I chose not to speak, I felt fortunate that I was assigned to "embody" Andy Velez, who happened to have been close to an actual pal of mine. With the information I gleaned, I felt like I was paying homage to Andy as I participated in the night's proceedings, wearing two strings of his signature beads. (Typically you would just read up on them or watch videos if they're available online.) 

The meeting, for better or worse, is much like any gathering of eclectic people; some are great -- one man moved me to tears talking about a friend who has succumbed to AIDS since the last meeting -- while others drive you nuts by repeatedly asking irrelevant questions or being so pedantic you want to punch them. But without question, one thing's for sure: the exercise will give you a fresh perspective on a dark time in gay history. 

A big thank-you to David for inviting us. Learn more about "Fight Back" HERE. 

P.S. Damian and I attended with our friend Tim Teeman, whose writeup you can read HERE.

(Photos by Hong-An Tran)