www.fastcompany.com: Four years ago, when ViiV Healthcare commissioned an ethnographic research study to understand the impact of HIV on black men in Baltimore and Jackson, Mississippi, the pharmaceutical company came away with a set of complex findings. Cultural identity, contextual environment, social structures and lack thereof—they all play a role in contributing to the bleak CDC statistic that, at the current infection rates, one out of every two black men in the U.S. who has sex with men will be infected with HIV in their lifetime.
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Reading that these pharmaceutical companies couldn’t present information in a powerpoint not only confuses me but infuriates me just a little, especially when it comes from these companies who make so much money off pill regiments in relation to HIV and AIDS. Why would companies spend even more money that could be invested in researching cures instead of promoting a drug? It was cool seeing a practical application of theatrical immersion but after reading this article most of me is like why spend this money. This project seems really cool, however, I don’t know why it was tied to pharmaceutical companies’ funding. The line that gets me the most is that yes this is to raise awareness but also to “ultimately boost sales of its portfolio of antiretroviral drugs”. Art here is just being used to profit. The awareness is great but seems like a side effect of a brand. This show seems fantastic and I wish I could see it but it rubs me the wrong way how involved these pharmaceutical companies are. It seems like a really elaborate advertisement.
Using immersive theater as a form of creating awareness is a solid idea and I can definitely see the good that it would do. The article clearly states that the 2 main reason were awareness and boosting sales of its antiretroviral drugs. Unlike Alexander, I am not infuriated by their motive I am quite happy that they were honest because even we as individuals often expect a reward when we do something. I believe that them steering away from power point presentations to a more powerful tool such as immersive theater is a smart move and finding tools like this for future purposes can be beneficial. The end of the article quotes a statement from Hall that ties the entire idea and article together for me “So if we’re going to be in it, we need to do something of value. We need to always push to do something that improves the human condition.”
I love this idea of taking statistics and information and presenting it in a form that reaches people. Every year there are thousands upon thousands of reports and statistics released most of which are never read and for the ones that are read, never convey what they need to. This is due to a disconnect between our brains ability to interpret and understand, and numbers or words on a page. This can be seen in high school often when you start learning about a massacre that occurred in history. A textbook or the teacher will present the facts, and everyone understands that it was a lot of people, but we don’t understand the gravity… until that same teacher shows a documentary or other form of visual and audio descriptive methods. We don’t understand because we aren’t experiencing it. This is where film, television, and theatre come into play. It engages enough of our senses that we can experience something and infer appropriately for the rest of our senses. This truly gives us the understanding and gravity of what is occurring. I think that this use of theatre to relay the gravity and provide the information to inform a proper decision is a brilliant way to go about making your statistics worth something.
This sort of compilation of real human stories is one of my favorite forms of theatre and I do believe that the choice to make an immersive theatre piece defines both the complexity of the HIV issue itself as well as the potential power that theatre can hold. As a individual in theatre I think I get caught up in the, everything we do can’t be really meaningful art but seeing things like this happening inspires me to keep looking for opportunities that would allow me to be part of something that really does have the power to be impactful and create change in the world. The intent (at least in part I think) is to present the information through storytelling to emphasize the individual effects that this has the ability to capture peoples hearts more than just the listing of statistics. Of course when dealing with the funding from the Pharmaceutical company there are other motives associated with it I’m sure, however I don’t think that fact alone should discredit the fact that this is an opportunity for voices who are typically suppressed to speak up and out about what they have had to deal with.
My Junior Year of high school, I was in a class entitled “In the Footsteps of the Elders” in which we were asked to interview elders in our life and share their stories in an intimate class setting. This process was very similar to that of the Laramie Project in which the stories were based on real people and the stories they shared. When reading the article about this new immersive theatre piece based off of real people and research that was conducted, I immediately related the story to the similar project I worked on regarding our elders. Personally, as an audience member shows that are so intimate and vulnerable (like As Much As I Can and the Laramie project tend to be the works that I am drawn to the most. Even if the issue is something I personally do not struggle with, seeing the emotional connection to a first account story is very powerful. These stories, especially one regarding race and sexual orientation spark conversations and have the power to enact change which is ultimately why I love theatre.
My Junior Year of high school, I was in class entitled “In the Footsteps of the Elders” in which we were asked to interview elders in our life and share their stories in an intimate class setting. This process was very similar to that of the Laramie Project in which the stories were based off of real people and the stories they shared. When reading the article about this new immersive theatre piece based off of real people and research that was conducted, I immediately related the story to the similar project I worked on. Personally, as an audience member shows that are so intimate and vulnerable (like As Much As I Can and the Laramie project tend to be the works that I am drawn to the most. Even if the issue is something I personally do not struggle with, seeing the emotional connection to a first account story is very powerful. These stories, especially one regarding race and sexual orientation spark conversations and have the power to enact change which is ultimately why I love theatre.
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