Light Play Carries Heavy Message for Youths: AIDS Has No Age Limit

Embarrassed titters spread through the crowd of 2,100 students at Reseda High School when they saw an actress in a play called “Secrets” dump out a purse full of condoms.

But the sponsors said they didn’t mind because it meant that the message of the play, about the ways that careless teen-age behavior could expose them to the AIDS virus, was getting through.

“We want them to know that what they do as teens . . . affects their entire lives,” said Linda Croad, a physician at Kaiser Foundation Hospital in Panorama City who specializes in infectious diseases. “No one wants to see a young person very ill. They’ve just started to live.”

“Secrets” has been performed throughout California but debuted Thursday in the San Fernando Valley in a program originated and sponsored by Kaiser Permanente, a health care provider. Incorporating light humor and focusing on the story of how one boy got the virus after sharing a needle with another drug user, the play targets teen-agers, who some doctors fear may be the next wave of AIDS victims.

“Teen-agers are showing the same high-risk patterns of sexual and drug activities that caused the virus to spread among gay males in the early 1980s,” said Dr. William Weinstein, who is in charge of the infectious-disease division at Kaiser. “Unless we can find new ways of reaching out to teen-agers, this high-risk behavior may well make them the new wave of AIDS patients in the 1990s.”

Passed through sexual intercourse and the sharing of intravenous drug equipment, acquired immune deficiency syndrome attacks the body’s ability to fight germs and infections, with fatal results.

According to the federal Centers for Disease Control, reported AIDS cases among people 13 to 19 years old more than doubled between September, 1987, and June, 1989--from 166 to 389 nationwide. AIDS cases among adults 20 to 29 more than doubled in the same period, from 8,716 to 20,545 nationwide. Taking into account the virus’ estimated eight-year incubation period, doctors think those adults may have been infected as teen-agers.

“Secrets” is based on true stories, and the impact on the students was palpable. After discovering that blood from bleeding gums could carry the virus, one 10th-grader said she would even check a boyfriend’s mouth and tell him to leave her alone if he has other sex partners.

“It really got to us--everybody was shocked,” said ninth-grader Carla Delso. “At the end this poor guy got it, and he had so much in his life.

“It’s just really scary to think you can get AIDS that quickly,” she added. “The parents need to tell their kids this can happen to you in a second.”

Educators and sponsors at Kaiser Permanente said one of the goals of the play is to use humor to dispel AIDS myths--”Can you get it through mosquitoes? I bet you can, and they’re just not telling you,” says one naive character--and to answer students’ questions.

“What we try to do with them is give them a medium where they can sit back, enjoy and watch,” said play director Rick Burke. “We’re not preaching at them.”

“Teen-agers have by and large been spared,” said Croad, the Kaiser physician. “They’re just learning about sex. They think they’re infallible. They think things will never happen to them. They seem to do things more spontaneously than adults, who think about AIDS.”

Those performing “Secrets” meet weekly for updates on AIDS information as preparation for the question-and-answer session with their young audiences.

“We’re trying to give them all the information they need and deserve,” said French Stewart, who played the role of the infected teen-age boy. “Occasionally, when you hear somebody giggle, it’s OK,” he said, because that means they are listening.