End Stigma, End HIV/AIDS | Theatre Performance

Forum Theatre Project announces Summer Schedule of “End Stigma, End HIV/AIDS”

Trinity University’s Mellon Institute for Summer Research in collaboration with the AtticRep announced its performance schedule of “End Stigma, End HIV/AIDS: A Forum Theatre Project.” The interactive theatre production is intended to function as a local intervention to reduce the stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS testing and treatment in order to improve public health delivery.

This original production draws from in-depth interviews with 34 San Antonio residents to depict the lived experiences of stigma related to HIV/AIDS testing and treatment locally. Each production includes a discussion with the audience, followed by a repeat performance that invites the public to participate in the action on the stage. The inclusion of “spect-actors” in the performance is integral to the Forum Theatre method, a tool that has been used successfully for decades to address social problems in numerous countries around the world.

The theatre performances are the product of a collaboration between the Mellon Institute for Summer Research at Trinity University and the AtticRep, which have drawn together three faculty, five students, two professional actors, and several members of the HIV+ community to create the play. For health care professionals, stigma is the greatest social impediment to combatting the AIDS epidemic.

Despite the substantial medical gains in HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, infection rates by and large have not declined in the last decade in Bexar County, which greatly outpaces statewide and national numbers of new diagnoses.

Admission by donation.