A GAY MAN AND A REDNECK TRAVEL THROUGH TIME TO FIND THE CURES FOR AIDS AND CANCER

ABOUT THE PLAY

I started writing this play in 1993, when my friends and their friends were dying of AIDS and nobody seemed to be doing anything about it and it seemed that mainstream America didn’t care. At the time I was living in Chicago working as a waiter, performing with my own improv group at comedy clubs and bars and taking classes at The Second City.  I was acutely aware of the unifying and healing power of comedy. I decided to do the only thing that I could do to help, write a comedy about AIDS and discrimination and bring human beings closer together. It started with asking my friends, if you had a room full of straight people and could convince them of one thing , what would it be? After that, when I had more of the story together, I would ask, if the United States was separated gay and straight what would the gay side look like, if you had to give a test to see if someone was gay what would you ask, and so on. The more people I told this story, the more people would say, “Well, if you put that in you have to put this in! Oh, if that’s in it, then you have to put this in it” While writing this play I had jokes, stories, anecdotes character traits all written on the backs of cocktail napkins, matchbooks pieces of paper, the backs of scripts, everything you could think of. 27 years of notes and research. I am particularly proud that this story is the voices of many who are not with us anymore, but they can still be heard. This is for them. I am very fortunate to have spent the majority of my life surrounded by gay men, so many that I look up to and admire. Their sense of humor, bravery and strong individuality will always be an inspiration to me.