Local HIV/AIDS play aims to educate teens
Posted to: Entertainment Norfolk The Arts
--------------------------
--------------------------
--------------------------
--
Want to go?
What “No One’s Talking: Speak Now”
When 1 and 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 1, at Chrysler Museum of Art, 245 W. Olney Road., Norfolk
Cost $15 in advance, $20 day of show
Info or to support 338-5796 or www.yadad4kidz.com
By Cherise M. Newsome
The Virginian-Pilot
© July 28, 2009
By Cherise M. Newsome
The Virginian-Pilot
On a recent hot summer Saturday, about a dozen youngsters sat under a shady tree rehearsing lines for an upcoming play about teens and HIV/AIDS. A misunderstanding had left them locked out of a recreation center. But the cast was determined to practice so they set up on a Berkley lawn.
As they sipped water and rehearsed scenes, Saran Day, who wrote the play a couple of years ago and is directing it, told the actors to project their voices, face the audience and let their emotions flow. But they still seemed stiff. Perhaps it was the heat. So Day made them drop their scripts.
"Ad lib," she said. "That's a key component to plays."
Then the actors became more animated, portraying students and faculty of the fictitious Crossroads High School as they grapple with the consequences of teen sex and HIV.
Having young people talk to fellow teens about the importance of HIV and AIDS
awareness is the idea behind the play titled "No One's Talking: Speak Now," which opens Saturday in the theater inside Chrysler Museum of Art.
Proceeds will help fund AIDS education and testing resources.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the rate of new HIV infections is highest among young people ages 13-29.
Based on a report released by the Virginia Department of Health earlier this year, about 21,000 Virginians have HIV or AIDS, about one out of every 370 people in the state.
Instead of having an adult lecture from a podium about the dos and don'ts of teen sex, Day - director of a Portsmouth-based advocacy group for teenagers called Youth Against Drugs and Diseases - figured it would be more effective to have informed teenagers educate peers about sexual health, the dangers of unprotected sex and the importance of knowledge about AIDS.
Courtney Greer, a rising senior at Booker T. Washington High School and the play's lead protagonist, agreed.
"It's a psychological thing because you feel like they understand you, and you understand them because you're the same age," said Greer, 17, who portrays Samaya, a teen who has been exposed to HIV after having unprotected sex with her boyfriend, Thad.
Still, parental involvement is important, said Day, a wife and mother of six in Portsmouth's Prentis Park. "Kids are having consensual sex," said Day. "That's the time to start communicating what's appropriate and what's not." She encourages parents to discuss sex with their children when they reach puberty.
But, she said, many of the students she encounters say their parents either don't discuss sex or are so uncomfortable doing so that the conversations are awkward and uninformative. Youngsters end up placing themselves and others at risk, she said.
Day, 36, illustrated that point with a story about a student who had contracted AIDS from her mother, but the mom never told the child. By the time the student discovered she had the disease, she had already been sexually active with several partners. And it's not just heterosexual students who need to know about the dangers of HIV/AIDS.
"The young [gay] guys are already shunned so they don't like to talk about it," Day said. "And I know girls who are lesbian who think they can't get it." Her play depicts realistic teen situations so that the message hits home.
"It gets them thinking, 'It can happen to me,' and to pay attention," said 18-year-old Dominic Meece. He plays Kado, a hybrid of himself and a friend to Thad, the leading male who has AIDS.
Milvene Thompson, who plays Thad's grandmother, said education and smart sexual behaviors can limit the disease's spread.
Thompson, a mother of three and a nurse's assistant, said she always talked to her kids about sex and diseases as they were growing up.
"When you get a sexual partner, you should know their sexual history, if they've had a check up, if they've had an HIV test," said the Cavalier Manor resident. "You need condoms or something to protect yourself, although the best way is to abstain."
Cherise M. Newsome, 446-2358,
cherise.newsome@pilotonlin
e.com
Headshot
