One Institute’s virtual presentation of THE NORMAL HEART, in collaboration with Birmingham, Ala.-based Invisible Histories Project, first took place in May 2021 to high acclaim, reaching audiences all over the world.

Honored for the Virtual & Remote – Best Performance category in the 26th Annual Webby Awards.

This presentation of THE NORMAL HEART first took place in May 2021 to high acclaim, reaching audiences nationwide and in 19 countries across the globe. The reading marked the first time the play featured a cast that is predominately BIPOC and LGBTQ.

The all-star cast includes Sterling K. Brown (This Is Us, Black Panther); Laverne Cox (Orange Is The New Black, Promising Young Woman); Jeremy Pope (Hollywood, Choir Boy); Vincent Rodriguez III (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Insatiable): Guillermo Díaz (Scandal, Weeds); Jake Borelli (Grey’s Anatomy, The Thing About Harry); Ryan O’Connell (Special, Will & Grace); Daniel Newman (Walking Dead, Homeland); Jay Hayden (Station 19, The House Bunny); and Danielle Savre (Station 19, Heroes). The virtual reading will include a special introduction by Martin Sheen.

First staged in New York City in 1985 at The Public Theater, THE NORMAL HEART went on to become the longest running play there.

Dealing with the painful experiences of the early days of the AIDS crisis when everything was still mysterious, the play dramatizes the struggle among gay men over which strategies would save their lives. Larry Kramer was a distinguished novelist, playwright, and screenwriter, and a pioneering AIDS activist. In 1982, he cofounded Gay Men's Health Crisis, and then in 1987, he founded ACT UP. He died at the age of eighty-four in May, 2020. He is survived by his husband, David Webster.

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This virtual reading is organized by One Institute and co-presented with Invisible Histories Project, a community-based Southern LGBTQ archiving and public history project, founded in 2016. It is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc.

For sponsorship opportunities, contact Jennifer C. Gregg (jgregg@onearchives.org, 323-419-1681).

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