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COUNTERCULTURE
Local PWA s/PWARC s Star in Ranson's Higher Ground
"Ive always wanted people to know what it's like
to have AIDS, especially from a woman’s
perspective. I'm glad 1 have the opportunity to talk
about my experience. I never thought I would." ,
-Debbie Dillon, cast member,
Higher Ground: Voices of AIDS
Rebecca Ranson's new play, Higher Gound:
Voices of AIDS, premieres at the NAMES Project
Quilt on May 29th at the World Congress Center.
The play is based on over 40 interviews Ranson
conducted with PWAs, PWARCs and other
intimately involved with tire AIDS crisis. Ranson,
author of Warren (1984), one of the first plays
written about AIDS, says that Higher Ground is a
sharp contrast to her experience four years ago.
"These stories are mostly ones of hope," she says. ”
People are living with AIDS in a more positive way
and the play is a reflection of that"
An indication of the shift to more positive
thinking about AIDS is the fact that imost two-
thirds of the people interviewed chose to act in the
play when Ranson extended the invitation. A desire
to share personal parts of their fives is the reason
given by most of the soon-to-be actors. "I feel
privileged that I can talk about my fife," says cast
To Save Our Souls
AIDS, The Ultimate Challenge
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
MacMillan PuNishing Co.,New York, 1987.
There are many books about AIDS. This one is
different Its premise is this: AIDS is both a scourge and
a blessing-a dread disease which offers us the
opportunity to act with love and compassioa As the
epidemic worsens, says the author, we humans will be
faced with a monumental choice: to get our act together
once and for all, to save Planet Earth and our immortal
souls, or to perish.
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, the Zurich-born psychiatrist,
speaks from her broad experience-as a lecturer, as a
pioneer worker with the dying, as an innovator of
hospice programs, as a caretaker and teacher of the sick,
imprisoned and stigmatized. In this book, as in her
previous four (including the well-known On Death and
Dying), sentiment and soft-pedaling are not to be found.
Rather, there is plenty here to startle and defy most
everyone. The non-Christian may be put off by the
book’s Biblical citings and strong Christian stance. The
fundamentalist Christian may scoff at the author 1 s belief
in reincarnation. The radical feminist will cringe at the
text's sexist language. The homophobic will shrink from
the praising of gays as the most compassionate people
the author has seen. You will dismiss this writer as an
alarmist or you will believe her enough to become
alarmed. Either way, you are not likely to forget what
she says.
What holds our attention and respect is the intensity of
Kubler-Ross’ beliefs, her straight-forward documentation
of her difficult work and her acknowledgement of the
humanity in all of us, including herself. Although she
might have presented herself as a wonder woman, ever
unruffled in the face of dissent and death, she chooses to
confess her own weak areas, recalling, for example, the
unsightly young man in a workshop she conducted. A
PWA (Person With AIDS), with purple blotches all over
his skin, the young man chose to sit next to Kubler-Ross
during mealtimes. One day the author found heraelf
praying that she might enjoy just one meal in a more
appetizing environment, only to be startled to think she
had prayed such a prayer. She remembered Christ's
work with lepers, she says, how he brought healing into
the world, how he loved unconditionally.
Later on in the book (in a chapter which is an actual
transcript of a jxrblic hearing, brought about through
Kubler-Ross' attempt to begin a hospice for babies dying
of AIDS), she is challenged by a citizen of her home
county: "Do you think you are Jesus?" "No," she
replies, "...but I am trying to do what was taught for two
thousand years, and that is to love your fellow man, and
help them."
This chapter is among the more interesting ones in the
book. Here we observe people reacting in various, often
quite predictable, ways-many of them, out of fear and
ignorance about AIDS, flatly opposing the doctor"s plan
to build a hospice on her own property, at her own
expense. Some ask intelligent questions, genuinely
trying to understand the situation, while others create
dialogue that might have come straight from a Flannery
O'Connor short story, i.e.:
Q: Why do you not place the center in a place where it
will be of the most value immediately? Why put them in
this area?
Dr. Kubler-Ross: Because I live here, and this is where I
work.
Q: Why didn't you stay where you way at?
Kubler-Ross makes no direct judgments about such
views. In the chapter just mentioned and in the one
following it, called "Letters to the Editor," she opts to
present the material and let the people speak for
themselves. They are thereby clearly revealed to us.
And so is she. When a questioner states: "What I am
talking about is everybody is scared
about it I am talking about fear.
How do you answer these people
who firmly believe that tourists are
not going to come to the county...,
etc.," Kubler-Ross replies, "You see,
I can't see it because I don't believe
it."
This is surely the crux of her
She has a mission so
that she cannot afford
' peripheral vision; she can only
^ follow the cause. She projects that,
- by 1991, there will be between two
million and three million carriers of
■ AIDS, with 270,000 actual cases.
Opportunities to change the world
with our compssion have cane our
way already, she says. Through the
world wars, through Vietnam, Korea,
and through the crises in Biafra,
and other places. Leaders
been sent us from time to time,
we creatures of earth—especially
we privileged ones-have grown
materialistic, indifferent to the cries of help throughout
the globe. AIDS, she believes, will be impossible to
ignore.
The first-hand accounts of prisoners with AIDS, of
children stricken with the disease, of people dying
among strangers-cut off from their closest kin, of young
homosexuals supporting and caring for each other, of
parents who finally come to know the sons they have
disavowed, of people of all ages and types being reduced
to their most vulnerable moments-all of these touch
something human inside of us. Among the more moving
offerings in the bode is a long letter written to an AIDS
patient, Edward, from somebody named I. It really
doesn't seem to matter that we know little else about
either person. This letter, as much as anything else that
comprises the book, seems to summarize all that
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross has attempted to give us. "None
of us is so unique as to be exempt from the human
condition," the letter writer says. "The journey of the
soul is everlastingly determined by our choices. It begins
with us and it ends with us."
Enough said.
-Blanche Farley
member George Kish. "I am very thankful for all of
the blessings I've received. It's uplifting to see
people doing so well physically; two or three years
ago we would have lost someone before the show
opened."
Rehearsals are usually filled with laughter and
animated talk despite the strain that long rehearsals
place on some of the cast, and part of the reason that
few people miss a rehearsal even when sick. There
is a feeling of family here and a strong desire to see
the production from beginning to end. Those in the
cast without AIDS say that their perception of the
disease has changed dramatically since their
involvement in Higher Ground. Ion Goldman, who
played the role of Warren in the 1984 and 1986
productions, expressed, "I'm learning from people
who have AIDS or ARC (AIDS-related complex).
It is nice to see that it is not all depression and pain;
I've only let myself see the tragic side. These people
are saying their fives have been enriched." Julie
Hamilton, a registered nurse who does volunteer
work with PWAs, is struck by the cohesiveness and
dedication of the cast" It's like a family. And
there's a message we all want to get out"
One of the messages is that AIDS is no longer
viewed as only a tragedy, that it can be a stimulus
for a richer and more meaningful life. Ranson states
that one of the major themes of the play is that
"AIDS is a gift PWAs and PWARCs are changing
the quality of their lives and their value systems.”
One of the cast members, Monte, believes that the
newly diagnosed would benefit from seeing
Higher Ground perhaps more than any other group.
"The show is mostly one of hope. If a person has
hope, they haven't lost anything," he said.
Other audience members the cast would like to
see on opening night are those who are not
knowledgeable about AIDS. They want to share
their stories and, in doing so, educate those who
have not been directly affected by the disease. The
hope is that the NAMES Quilt will bring out a
number of people who remain uneducated about
AIDS, and will lake the opportunity to see a play
based on and delivered by PWAs andPWARCs.
Higher Ground:Voices of AIDS is another
community effort by Ranson. As in For Love and
For Life, her play based on the National March on
Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights,
professionals and non-professional come together
to create a moving and cathartic piece. For Love
and For Life sold out most nights and the same is
anticipated for Higher Ground. If you miss it
during the showing of the NAMES Quilt on May
29th, you will get another chance in June. It is
scheduled for June 23rd through June 25th at
Horizon Theatre as part of the events taking place
during Lesbian and Gay Pride Week '88. For
reservations for the premiere at the World Congress
Center on May 29th at 8:30 PM call 827-9678.
Reservations for the shows during Pride Week can
be made by calling 584-2104.
The cast members of Higher Ground are: Tipton
Bishop, David Brey, Debbie Dillon, Kathie
deNobriga, Mike Edwards, Bryan Finely, Ron
Glenn, Jon Goldman, Julie Hamilton, John
Kappcrs, Timothy Kevin, Richard Kimmer, George
Kish, Jim Knoll, Jeffrey Laymon, Jim Leys,
Harvey McKonly, Monte, Stebbo Hill, Chris .
Minor, KurtRahn, Mama Ripley-Hager, David
Royster, Chris Walker, K. Razz Walker, Johnny
wish and Randall Willis.
- Leigh VanderEls & Christina Cash
David Royster and Jim Leys study their lines
as Dik Holland rehearses his part
;':'l
FRAMELINE PRESENTS IN CONJUNCTION WITH
THE NAMES PROJECT
1 H f
nos
F I l M P H 0 J F C 1
A GROUP OF AWARD WINNING FILMS
DEMONSTRATING THE FORCE AND SPECTRUM
OF HUMAN RESPONSE TO THE AIDS CRISIS
Georgia World Congress
Sat. May 28 - 6:00 & Mon. May 30 - 4 CD
285 International Blvd . NW, Rm 216 & 217 _