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Sarah (Danielle DiCiero) discloses her HIV status as Kat (Betsy Bell),
Mark (Billy Harbour) and Danny (Darren Van Deursen) listen.
The Inner Circle was able to visit the Kenai Peninsula in Spring 2006 thanks to generous funding from The Pride Foundation
During the week of February 20, 2006, The Inner Circle made its road trip to the Kenai Peninsula. The play performed at Seward High School for 90 students on the 21st, for Kenai Central High School’s freshman health classes on the 23rd (a total of 100), a public performance at Kenai Central the evening of the 23rd (a total of 15) and for Homer High School on Friday the 24th (an all school assembly with 500 in attendance!). We reached over 700 on the Peninsula just with our performances. We made great strides with the performances we did and we received great press coverage with articles in The Peninsula Clarion, The Homer Tribune and The Homer News.
The biggest success of the trip was the Homer performance. Homer High School only allows two “all school assemblies” each school year and the subject of the assemblies are decided by the PTA. We had a parent ally who was on the PTA and had read about the play in the Anchorage Daily News back in the fall of 2004. She was thrilled that we received funding to come down and in addition to advocating for us to the PTA (who voted for the play with a unanimous vote) worked to get us a great deal at a hotel in Homer. The community was extremely welcoming and in addition to the students, parents and other community members filled the auditorium to watch the performance. During the question and answer session at the end, a young woman stood up and stated that she was infected by HIV when she was a teen and that it was great to see this subject handled effectively. The power of her disclosure will stay with all 500 people in that auditorium.
The four kids have done tremendous work this year with the play, in addition to the Kenai Tour, they have also performed at all the Anchorage area high schools. Both this cast and last year's cast were nominated for the Red Cross Real Heroes Educators award and the agency is proud to announce they have won! Thank you to both the 2004 and the 2005 casts and their director, Christian Heppinstall for their amazing work.
View pictures from the current tour
CAST 2005/2006
Betsy Bell as "Kat"
Danielle DiCiero as "Sarah"
Darren Van Deursen as "Danny"
Billy Harbour as "Mark"
PRODUCTION HISTORY
During the fall of 2004, The Four A's partnered with the Alaska Theatre of Youth to develop an innovative project that would increase HIV/AIDS awareness and education. Patricia Loughrey’s The Inner Circle: Changing Times, a powerful play about the effects of HIV on a group of high school students, explores how friendship changes once they learn one of them has been diagnosed with HIV.
With recent apathy regarding HIV and the need for more education in the schools, providing youth with educational opportunities about HIV/AIDS has become even more critical. This play is a beneficial opportunity to educate students not only because it has an HIV prevention message, but also because it is presented in an original way that captures students’ attention. The harder we work to provide prevention messages and eradicate the stigma of HIV in today’s youth, the more new infections and stigma will decrease as they become tomorrow’s leaders.
On October 1st and 2nd, 2004, the play debuted with two public performances, drawing nearly 200 members of the community. This debut served as a springboard to a tour through local area high schools. During the fall and winter months, the play performed at seven high schools, providing an educational message about HIV to over 1,700 high school students. It has also made seven public performances, six in the Anchorage area and one in Fairbanks, bringing the total number of individuals reached to over 2,000.
The play has invoked a very positive response in the Anchorage community. The play’s public performances received fabulous reviews in both the Anchorage Daily News (page two of the ADN article is located here ) and the Anchorage Press .
Production Information
- Performance time is 45 minutes
- All performances are free of charge
- Cast size is four actors and one director
- Technical staging requirements:
Indoor: Lights and sound
Outdoor: Solid stage surface, paved or wooden
- Production has been approved by the Anchorage School District for middle and high school
students.
Read the Complete Script (Word) (PDF)
View Photos of the Original Cast Performing in Fall 2004
For more information about The Inner Circle contact Chrissy Bell at 263-2046 or
cbell@alaskanaids.org
The Fall 2004 and Fall 2005 casts of The Inner Circle.
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