The Normal Heart at Studio Theater In Exile

This June, Studio Theater in Exile (STIE) is teaming up with Peekskill Pride to present The Normal Heart, a poignant, semi-autobiographical play by AIDS activist Larry Kramer. The play explores one man’s fight in the 1980s to bring attention to the epidemic. Performances will take place on Fridays and Saturdays at 7:00 PM and Sundays at 3:00 PM, from June 12 through June 26, with an additional performance on June 28 at 4:00 PM. All performances will be held at STIE, located within Hudson Valley MOCA Arts at 1701 Main Street in Peekskill. Details and ticket sales are available online at studiotheaterinexile.com/events.

Peekskill artist Carla Ray Johnson and Cynthia Knox, CEO of Caring for the Hungry and Homeless of Peekskill (CHHOP), are associate co-producers the performances, together with STIE Producer Jeremy Gratt and Artistic Director Mara Mills.

The Normal Heart, which was produced off-Broadway in 1985 and premiered on Broadway in 2011, follows the feisty Weeks as he demands the government, the press, and medical professionals to address an unidentified disease that was killing gay men, mostly in New York City. In the play he also confronts his brother’s homophobia, and finds himself falling in love in a time when love was more deadly.

Directed by Tom Kramer, the play will feature Amanda Bloom, Eric Percival, Gavino Olvera, George H. Croom, Jason Summers, Steve Cruz, Ed Friedman, and Lauren Hare. Ashley Antonia Lopez is marketing coordinator, and Carrie Ford is stage manager.

“People who are involved in Pride, and who might not normally have found us on their own, are now coming to the theater for ourPride performances and for other events,” said Mills. “So, there is a blossoming of audiences, of artists, and of people in the community collaborating together.”

Kramer noted that this 40-year-old play is once again timely: “What we saw in the early ’80s, in terms of the government turning its back, we are seeing again. You look at the active refusal to allow people in the trans community to receive the medical care they need. I would say back in’81, it was done more out of ignorance. Now, it is an active program of removal. This play has become not just about gays. It has become a call to action against a government who is abandoning its responsibilities on purpose. Still, it is also a very beautiful play.”