Giving Intimate Voice to ‘Other’ Lives Affected by AIDS

Michael Kearns and AIDS-related theater--the two are rapidly becoming synonymous. And for now, at least, that’s OK with Kearns. “I feel a tremendous peace and serenity doing this work--because I’m doing something ,” said the Los Angeles actor-director. “Also, there’s a certain joy in taking responsibility for your life--as an artist and a gay person and someone who’s been heartbroken.”

In the past few years, Kearns (whose touring repertoire includes “Dream Man” and “The Truth is Bad Enough”--which has played locally and across Europe) figures he’s done “probably ten AIDS pieces, mostly through the experience of a gay white man, because that’s what I am, and most of the people I’ve lost. But finally I got tired, not of the subject, but telling that tale. I felt it was my responsibility to look at the others.”

Those others--the disenfranchised and outcast of our society--come to life in “Intimacies,” a collection of character portraits opening this weekend and playing through June at the Highways performance space in Santa Monica.

The one-man show (directed by Kelly Hill, with original music by Darien Martus) presents six very different characters, all suffering from AIDS: deranged Denny, a black street hooker named Big Red, “Perfect Patrick” from West Hollywood, a heterosexual junkie/street kid named Rusty, Mary (who believes AIDS is God’s punishment) and Phoenix, now blind and living under the Hollywood Freeway--”full of sweetness and hope.”

It was the Denny character that first sparked Kearns’ imagination. “I was in New York a year ago, down in the subway, and there was a guy in a hospital gown, with blood splattered all over it. He appeared to be gay--and he appeared to be demented. But he also seemed to be having the time of his life.” A few months later, touring in San Francisco, Kearns was drawn to the sight of the city’s prostitutes, wondering “how they survived this whole AIDS thing.

“When you hear something’s about AIDS, people think it’s going to be depressing,” Kearns said. “But most of these characters have a lot of humor. They’re surviving by their wits. This piece is open and light. It’s also a reaction not only to gay theater’s response to AIDS, but the media’s response. It’s easy for a good-looking white male to be heard. But these people are not going be in ‘People’ or on ‘Nightline.’ Their voices are not taken seriously.”

Perhaps, the actor hopes, audiences will listen to him. But he makes it clear he’s only speaking for himself--not the gay world. “If I thought about my responsibility to the community, I’d go crazy,” he said. “I always thought of this as a responsibility to myself, my instincts, my feelings. I also believe an actor needs to address social issues. The fact that I’m a gay white male and AIDS is here has just accelerated that belief.”

But don’t look for a role model beyond that.

“I’m flattered by the idea,” he admitted. “But the truth is that a lot of material in this piece--if you broke it apart--would not be considered politically correct by some gay activists. At this point, I don’t think art can be politically correct. We’ve proven we can be the good boys,” preaching monogamy and safe sex. “I don’t want to do that anymore. Anyway,” Kearns said with a laugh, “I don’t think I personally have to worry about being perceived as a good boy.”

Also this month: “Orphee, Oedipus and the Lady With the Red Glove” a dance/drama taken from the themes of Jean Cocteau’s works, has a final performance this afternoon at the Barnsdall Gallery Theatre in Los Angeles. . . . A stripper sees Jesus in a mirror ball and becomes a stripper-evangelist in Rebecca Wells’ offbeat comedy, “Gloria Duplex,” opening today at the Back Alley in Van Nuys.

Joseph Megel and Phil Ward’s adaptation of Richard Brautigan’s “Sombrero Fallout: A Japanese Novel,” about a writer’s obsessive love and a mysterious black sombrero, premieres Wednesday at Hollywood’s Friends and Artists Ensemble. . . . Meredith Cofren’s “Growing Gracefully: The Middle Ages of Women,” a group of monologues on being female, opens Thursday at the Tiffany Theatre in West Hollywood. Linda Carlson, Mary Pat Gleason, Ann Guilbert, Elaine Joyce and Joanna Miles are featured.

Los Angeles playwright Jean Van Tuyle’s “Summer Wind,” about a troubled Illinois farm family, has its premiere Friday at Burbank’s Alliance Theatre. . . . “Growing Pains,” the Joan Desberg/Julius Wechter/Cissy Wechter/Faye Greenberg musical comedy about marital mid-life crisis, also opens Friday, at Van Nuys’ Actors Alley.

“Time Flies When You’re Alive,” a moving reminiscence by actor Paul Linke on his late wife’s bout with cancer, has a single performance Friday at the Santa Monica Playhouse. . . . Shakespeare’s “Pericles, Prince of Tyre” and “Americana--Saints and Sinners,” a celebration of American heritage told through the words of the country’s poets, playwrights and statesmen (and put to music) open next Sunday at the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum in Topanga.

Christopher Marlowe’s rarely seen “Edward II” opens June 15 at the Globe Playhouse in West Hollywood. Michael Benedict directs. . . . Playwright Jude Narita returns with her gallery of Asian women, “Coming Into Passion/Song For a Sansei,” opening June 16 at the New Playwright’s Foundation Theatre in the Fairfax area.

A newly formed group, Strike Theatre Inc., opens a summer season June 16 at the Callboard in West Hollywood with Cyril Tourneur’s Jacobean thriller “The Revengers”. . . . Sundance Institute artistic director David Krane’s one-acts “Audience” and “Montana” premiere June 16 at Friends and Artists Ensemble. . . . Frank Fowler’s one-man play, “Inside Out,” which premiered last summer at the Edinburgh Festival, opens June 16 at the Skylight in Hollywood.