Love

Tickets to each part of the play are being sold separately, with some performances including a third ticketed event between the two parts — a catered supper at the Frank Center.

Before any misconceptions could be developed, Love clarified that his work is so much more than just a play.

“I actually don’t refer to ‘What Will Happen To All That Beauty?’ as a play. I refer to it as an offering, because I deeply believe that it is offering a representation to a group of people who are seldom seen on stage. It is offering softness to a group of people that have navigated so much hardship throughout the AIDS epidemic. And it is also offering love, so that people can know that they matter and that they are not alone,” Love said. “We’re so used to calling staged pieces ‘plays,’ but for me this an offering of softness, of representation and of love.”

“What Will Happen To All That Beauty?” centers around the story of a Black family navigating the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Brooklyn, N.Y. over the course of 30 years. The story was inspired by many personal stories from Black people who experienced the HIV/AIDS epidemic from 1981 through the 1990s, which Love found in collections of memoir essays and through reaching out to the public during the COVID-19 Pandemic. To ensure an even deeper level of accuracy, Love’s mentor John Warren Green, who lived through the HIV/AIDS epidemic, has served as an HIV/AIDS consultant and dramaturg for the offering.

“What Will Happen To All That Beauty?” will be the first two-part play produced by the Contemporary American Theater Festival. Courtesy photo

Love noted that most stories about the HIV/AIDs epidemic focus on white men, even though only one in 10 white queer men have the disease, while one in two Black queer men have the disease.

“This is an amalgamation of so many people who are living with HIV. Of so many people, specifically Black people, who are living with HIV. And so many people who have died due to AIDS complications,” Love, who has been HIV positive since 2008, said. “So this piece is more representative of the community at large, and not just me as an individual.”

While the subject matter seems grim, Love noted that, like with many family stories, there are moments of humor interspersed throughout the work.

“Know that you are going to come to a story about HIV and AIDS and enjoy yourself! There are going to be some laughs in there,” Love said. “One of the things that we keep talking about in the rehearsal room, is this is not an ‘AIDS play.’ We also laugh and have a good time in the offering. We can talk about something heavy and also have joy.”

According to Love, audience members will come to understand, as they watch each part, why his offering could not be limited to the length of a normal play.

“I’m all for a 90-minute piece. So when I started to write this piece, I realized that this was not what I thought it would be in terms of time and structure — the characters and story were demanding more of me and they all said, ‘I deserve more. I deserve to be heard,'” Love said. “In part one, which was set in 1986, we are following the family in what would have been the height of the AIDS epidemic. In part two, we see what happens when we jump some years and see where the family is then — what are the imprints from part one and what are the imprints from AIDS in the ’80s to what we get to part two. To me, the offering should be experienced and needs to be experienced as one whole body of work. Though the pieces, to a degree, can stand on their own, it’s a complete work when you can see part one and part two.”

Tickets can be purchased at https://catf.org/.