Representatives from AIDS Community Services presented on the history and background of the AIDS epidemic to the cast and crew of RENT at the beginning of their rehearsal on Wednesday, April 7.
Kate Gallivan, senior director of education, Christopher Voltz, director of marketing, and Andrew Mattle, director of mental health services, provided background information on the nature and scope of AIDS as it exists in the Buffalo area.
RENT, the Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award- winning rock opera based on Puccini’s opera La boheme, tells the story of a group of impoverished young artists and musicians struggling to survive and create in New York’s Lower East Side in the shadow of the growing AIDS crisis in the late 1980s. Medaille Music and Drama will stage four performances of RENT, beginning with an evening performance on Friday, April 30 at the Buffalo Campus Main Building Lecture Hall.
AIDS Community Services of Western New York, Inc. is a not-for-profit community based organization committed to ending the AIDS epidemic and minimizing its effects in the eight counties of Western New York. Founded in 1983 as the Buffalo AIDS Task Force (BATF) when there were only three confirmed cases of AIDS in our area, AIDS Community Services provides medical, supportive, and prevention services and encourages individuals to take responsibility for their health and quality of life.