Theaters Band Together in Fight Against AIDS

Magic Johnson may have brought the reality of AIDS home to the nation when he announced he had tested positive for HIV, the AIDS-causing virus. But to Tom Viola, who acknowledges that the act “was courageous and may turn a corner,” Johnson is not the only voice against AIDS.

“If he’s a hero, then there are hundreds and hundreds of heroes who made it possible for him to stand up,” said Viola, administrative director of New York-based Equity Fights AIDS. “He’s not the first to be ill or to try to change things.”

The group, which concludes its fifth annual Equity Fights AIDS Week on Sunday, World AIDS Day, has enlisted more than 230 theater companies across the United States this year in raising money for actors with AIDS. Among them are the La Jolla Playhouse, which will hold its benefit Monday, the Old Globe Theatre, which is planning one for Dec. 12, and Blackfriars Theatre, formerly the Bowery, also with a Dec. 12 benefit.

In addition, the San Diego Repertory Theatre, Old Globe, Starlight Musical Theatre, Gaslamp Quarter Theatre Company, Blackfriars, La Jolla Playhouse and San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art will participate in the local Red Ribbon Day, in which 10,000 red ribbons will be distributed Saturday and Sunday to build awareness of the crisis.

Equity Fights AIDS, which was established in October, 1987, by Actors’ Equity Assn., has raised more than $2.2 million, which it has distributed to more than 2,500 seekers of assistance for afflicted members of the theater community nationwide.

Also coming to San Diego to stage a benefit for local AIDS organizations is “Heart Strings,” which will kick off a 35-city national tour at Copley Symphony Hall on Feb. 8. There will be one show only for general audiences, but two additional performances for students only, whom organizers see as critical to slowing the disease’s spread.

For $250, you can buy a ticket that includes a VIP pre-show, black-tie dinner, VIP seating and a Champagne-dessert cast party. For $75, you get preferred seating and a cast party, and for $35, the show only. Students will be charged $5.

The show, which came here on its only other national tour in January, 1990, is a compendium of musical selections performed by a traveling cast of 20. It also enlists a local gospel choir, men’s chorus and children in each city it plays.

Celebrity narrators (one of them local anchorwoman Denise Yamada of KNSD-TV) will tie the songs together by telling stories of people directly or indirectly touched by AIDS.

“Heart Strings,” which was created in Atlanta by David Sheppard in 1985, aims to be educational as well as to benefit local AIDS organizations, said Ron Ferrero, director of administration for Heart Strings of San Diego.

According to data compiled by his office from various sources, San Diego has an estimated 30,000 HIV-infected individuals.

More than 2,800 cases of AIDS have been reported in San Diego, and more than 55 new cases of AIDS are reported each month. It is estimated that more than 17,000 of those infected will develop AIDS symptoms within the next eight years. Ferrero credits Johnson’s announcement for a dramatic increase in people getting tested for AIDS. Early detection can mean a longer life, he said.

Through the show and a display of part of the AIDS Memorial Quilt at the Price Center Ballroom on the UC San Diego campus Feb. 6-9, Heart Strings tries to put human faces on those statistics. Each of the quilt’s 15,000 3-by-6-foot quilted panels is a remembrance of global AIDS victims.

During the 1989-90 tour, Heart Strings raised more than $3 million, which was given, in turn, to 131 community-based organizations in 40 cities. The goal for the San Diego stop, where $140,000 was raised last time, is $500,000.

Among the AIDS service organizations scheduled to get up to 60% of the proceeds are the AIDS Foundation San Diego, the Center for Social Services and Being Alive. The rest will be given to other local AIDS organizations, based on their proposals.

The only connection between Equity Fights AIDS and “Heart Strings,” is that Equity Fights AIDS gave Equity actors permission to tour with this non-Equity show.

Tickets and information about “Heart Strings” can be reached through its San Diego office at 236-7060.

As for the local theaters’ upcoming AIDS benefits, the “Forever Plaid” team will not be part of the La Jolla Playhouse’s Dec. 2 “Rev. Showbiz’s Travelling Salvation Society & Speakeasy Revue” to benefit the AIDS fight, as had been previously announced. It seems the musical director of the Plaids was willing, but the Plaids themselves had previous commitments that night. Instead, the Plaids will do their own AIDS benefit, designating an additional performance of “Forever Plaid” for Equity Fights AIDS on Dec. 12 at 5 p.m. Tickets are $25 and can be bought through the Old Globe box office at 239-2255.

Meanwhile, the Rev. Showbiz team, which is made up of the “Elmer Gantry” cast and band, has lined up other notables, including the Del Rubio Triplets, three sisters in their 60s who wear hot pants and sing such golden oldies as “These Boots Are Made for Walking.” Michael Jeter, Tony winner for “Grand Hotel” and a regular on the television series “Evening Shade,” will be master of ceremonies, and Des McAnuff, artistic director of the playhouse (and a former rock ‘n’ roller) will play guitar. Tickets cost $25. Proceeds will benefit Equity Fights Aids and the San Diego Aids Foundation. They are available from the playhouse at 534-3960.

PROGRAM NOTES: Can’t figure out what to get for that person who has everything? How about a rickshaw or a purple prop piano that doesn’t play a note? You’ll find all that and more at the La Jolla Playhouse prop sale, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Dec. 7 at the company’s warehouse at 10373 Roselle St., No. 10, in Sorrento Valley. The props come from playhouse shows and are priced from 50 cents to $500. The rickshaw and the purple piano are from “80 Days.” Also available are two of the sleigh beds from “Three Sisters,” an armoire from “The Matchmaker,” a couple of fishing poles from “Big River,” vases from “Twelfth Night” and one life-size, cowhide-covered cow from “The Tempest.” . . .

Paul Benedict, who directed the world premiere of A. R. Gurney’s “The Old Boy” at the Manhattan Theatre Club earlier this year, will direct the show’s West Coast premiere at the Old Globe’s Cassius Carter Centre Stage from Jan. 18-March 1. . . .

“The Flying Doctor,” a 12-minute work by Moliere translated by Albert Bermel, will be the curtain raiser for the Old Globe’s upcoming production of Moliere’s “The School for Husbands,” Jan. 23-March 1 on the main stage.