Introduction

Over forty years ago, on May 18, 1981, the first report of what would become the AIDS epidemic appeared in the New York Native. What followed was unprecedented and relentlessly horrific.

Six years after that first report, on March 14, 1987, under the visionary leadership of Larry Kramer, an organization was formed, devoted to political action and ending the AIDS crisis. 

ACT UP.

As relentless as the epidemic was, ACT UP was equally relentless in its determination to stop the dying. After eight devastating years, its efforts finally paid off, when, on December 6, 1995, a protease inhibitor, saquinivir, was approved - and the mass dying stopped.

ACT UP, and its offshoot TAG, were crucial in dramatically accelerating saquinivir’s approval process, which then led the way for even more successful drug therapies - ultimately saving millions of lives. Possibly your own.

Sadly, over the intervening years, the names and accomplishments of these men and women have not only faded from memory, their cultural importance has vanished. Because this is unacceptable, I wrote The Survivors.

My mission was to create a play that would shine a spotlight on my generation’s historic accomplishments and leave a lasting dramatic legacy.

Although it’s an ACT UP-inspired work of fiction, The Survivors is firmly anchored in real events and centers on the forgotten generation of activists who helped save the lives of millions. Additionally, through the universal themes of regret and redemption, it examines the toll the epidemic exacted on them emotionally and socially, and their erasure in the current gay culture.