In the mid 1980s, plays about AIDS started to emerge in the United States. In part, these early plays and the plays that followed were calls to action. They documented the devastation within a community – and showed how little was being done. Blending advocacy and art, the plays also gave us individual characters whose lives touched us deeply. On this program, we’ll hear about three landmark American plays dealing with the AIDS crisis. Don Shewey talks about Larry Kramer’s "The Normal Heart," Catherine Sheehy discusses Paula Vogel’s, The Baltimore Waltz, and Robert Vorlicky explores Tony Kushner’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Angels in America.
Produced by "What’s the Word."