Comedy and Stereotypes : AIDS-themed work attacks preconceptions in the Latino community about the disease.

Art once again joins the AIDS battlefront with IDEAS Associates’ “Artists Affecting AIDS . . . A Celebration of Hope,” a series of play presentations, visual art shows, film screenings and play readings in support of Los Angeles AIDS Awareness Month and TranscEND AIDS.

On Thursday, a tour of Rose Sanchez and Ofelia Fox’s AIDS-theme comedy, “I Always Meant to Tell You, But . . . ,” presented in English and Spanish versions, starts at the American Renegade Theatre.

When IDEAS (a nonprofit arts organization that supports artists living with HIV or AIDS) first approached director Raoul N. Rizik about staging the work, he recalls thinking: “ ‘A comedy about AIDS?’ I didn’t want to trivialize it; I’ll leave that for television. But then I saw the possibility of taking a sensitive subject to a population--the Hispanic community--that’s never quite understood or accepted it--either homosexuality or AIDS. In many Latin American countries, the subject is still taboo.

“In one sense, we really throw it in the audience’s face--how silly their preconceptions are,” Rizik adds. He describes the work as “Expressionistic: a comedy with very strong doses of drama, or a drama with comic overtones. It uses laughter to sell the message.”

The story--written in Spanish under the title “ Siempre Intente Decir Algo ,” with a literal English translation by Rizik--centers on a young attorney and his gay housekeeper, who are visited by the attorney’s two aunts and an uncle on April Fool’s Day.

“Another reason I wanted to do this is I’m tired of the stereotypes in Latino culture,” explains Rizik, who was born in the Dominican Republic, but moved with his parents to Washington at age 12. “It’s not this exotic, unknown, inscrutable culture. It’s part of Western culture, it’s indigenous.” Performing in alternate languages, he concedes, “you do add a certain flavor, change some things around--but it’s pretty much the same. I don’t think we have to sell ourselves short, thinking (Anglos) won’t understand.”

Rizik believes that he has represented the Latino community well in his five-member cast, whom he describes as “very international,” including a Mexican-American, a Puerto Rican, an Argentine, a Cuban and what the actor-director calls a “Newyorican “--a Puerto Rican via New York. “But the appeal is not just to Hispanics,” emphasized Rizik, who moved to Los Angeles 4 1/2 years ago and who teaches English as a second language at the mid-Wilshire College of English. “It’s a universal appeal.”

The 3-year-old arts group (IDEAS stands for Identity in Existence Artwork Shops) continues its play tour Oct. 22 to 24 with four free performances--two in English, two in Spanish--at the McGroarty Arts Center in Tujunga (818-352-5285), followed by stops at Verdi Ristorante di Musica in Santa Monica on Oct. 28, Watts Towers Arts Center Nov. 4 to 7, William Grant Still Art Center in L. A. on Nov. 13 and 14, and downtown at the Los Angeles Theatre Center from Nov. 18 to 21.

IDEAS member Rick Albright will be represented in the four free visual arts exhibits. The installations will be on display today through Oct. 31 at the Fine Art Pavilion in Van Nuys (818-609-8289), also today through Nov. 20 at the Cia Salon of Beverly Hills, Wednesday to Nov. 20 at the McGroarty Arts Center, and Wednesday to Oct. 20 at the Watts Towers Arts Center.

“AIDS is not the subject of the work,” notes Albright, “although all of the artists either have AIDS or have been affected by it. What we want to say is, ‘We’re not all sitting dying in a corner.’ Some of the works are very lively, bright and colorful--very positive. A couple of the others are more introspective, and that shows in the art. Usually in a group show, there’s a theme, a style. But we’re not connected by anything but the illness. So the art is really diverse.”

WHERE AND WHEN

What: “I Always Meant to Tell You, But . . .”

Location: American Renegade Theatre, 11305 Magnolia Blvd., North Hollywood.

Hours: 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays. Closes Oct. 17. Performances in Spanish are Thursday to Oct. 10, performances in English Oct. 14 to 17.

Price: $10; free on Thursdays (with suggested donation of $7).

Call: (818) 386-1803.