Let’s make a wall of memories

Join The Normal Heart. Help us make this amazingly moving production even stronger for those who will come to see it! It’s a project unique to our production, built on your participation.

We would like anyone who comes to see TimeLine’s production to bring a photo of a friend, family or loved one who lost their life to HIV/AIDS or the effects of the virus.

Read on for more and how to get involved …

One of the many reasons I started working with TimeLine is because the visual aspects of the show are very important to our work. We often push ourselves to produce work that even amazes us as a company—we end up asking, “How did we do that?”

You could see this from the very first show ever produced in our Wellington Avenue space, Gaslight, on to Copenhagen, and Blood and Gifts. And I think that The Normal Heart is no exception.

The back wall of The Normal Heart stage, which is only 17 feet from the downstage edge of the stage, is a wall of books—40 feet wide and nearly 20 feet tall. At first this wall was to represent playwright Larry Kramer’s bookcase in his New York City apartment on Washington Square, full of life and clutter, much like the bookcases in my own studio.

But The Normal Heart bookcase has come to represent so much more. It is the clutter of New York City in the early 1980s. It is people’s lives—book by book, and as collections.

Placed in front of the bookcase, there are slick, clean-lined doors that sometimes allow you to see people ghosting behind them. These doors often block the bookshelves throughout the play, but they can never cover up the chaos of the city and the destruction behind it. It took Mayor Koch nearly 3 years to ever deal with this outbreak that killed so many in the gay community, and now every community all over the world.

What happens to one’s book collection and personal effects when you die? What artifacts do people leave behind? What things have people collected of their loved ones? Today, in this world, there are photos of, and pieces of art created by, the (mostly) men who died in the early- to mid-1980s.

The TimeLine Company, director Nick Bowling, and I would be honored if you would join us in creating a wall of memories—making this amazingly moving production even stronger for those who will come to see it.

We would like anyone who comes to see TimeLine’s production to bring a photo of a friend, family or loved one who lost their life to HIV/AIDS or the effects of the virus. Together, let’s make this powerful back wall of the theater a living memorial until the day we close.

You would honor us by letting our cast, crew and audiences celebrate the life of this person, these people. Please bring the photos with you when you attend the show and hand them to the house manager. I will personally come to the theater every three days or as needed to put up these photos or small remembrances. I will take great pride and care with them.

NOTE: Please keep in mind that we are not able to guarantee return of your items after the show closes.

I hope you will join us and Larry and the more than 30 million people worldwide who have lost their lives to this tragic epidemic. I thank you so very much.