Oh Asheville, do we have a treat for you! When you started printing "Keep
Asheville Weird" stickers, and "Love Local" decals, we met you
more than half way. The immergence of the
theater group Different StrokesPerforming Arts Collective has invited Asheville to partake of professional
theater on a very provocative and intimate level. By engaging the audience with plays evoking
issues with racism, sexual identity, aging, and other social hot buttons , Different Strokes Performing Arts Collective
is making theater that makes a difference.
"Jeffry" is not your usual
"gay-man-with-relationship-issues" type of play. Set in the 1990s, "Jeffry" looks
from the personal perspective of a gay man whose community has been plagued by
AIDs. On the surface, Jeffry is
exploring his option to become celibate to stay safe, but as we go deeper into
Jeffry's psyche, we start to discover this is more about whether or not to love
someone you know is going to die. Heavy
stuff ...for a comedy.
Rodney Smith, assistant-director with Different Strokes
Performing Arts Collective, asks "How often can you say, 'Oh, this is about
death and love and dying,' and then laugh about it?"
But there's more: When the curtain goes down, the show is
not over. Different Strokes Performing Arts Collective invites the audience
to continue to think and re-evaluate their views on what they have just seen in
the play. During the "Talk Back
Session," some of the actors come back to the stage and discuss with the
audience the issues brought up. The
audience also meets and talks with the beneficiary of the play's proceeds. You see, Different
Strokes Performing Arts Collective is a non-profit organization. Each production has one, and sometimes two,
beneficiaries. The audience gets to learn about the recipient organization and
how we all work together as a community to make a difference.
For "Jeffry," the beneficiary is WNC AidsProject.
If you are looking for something unique, memorable and
stimulating to do this weekend, check
out the new performance of "Jeffry," running April 18- May 4, 2013 (Thursday-Saturday 7:30 pm) at
ACT/35below - 35 Walnut St. in Asheville.
Contact Different Strokes Performing Arts Collective for tickets through
Event Brite
