In a world where artificial intelligence is encroaching on reality every day and the pandemic is always in the background, in-person experiences are all the more interactive and engaging.
Case in point: The haunted house experience Terror Roulette in South Barrington, where the fourth wall doesn’t exist and the actors can actually lay hands on you to provide a spookier environment. The theater experience “As Much As I Can” offers audiences at the Morgan Arts Complex in Bridgeport a similar choose-your-own-adventure feel, with colored wristbands provided before the performance dictating what path you follow.
Everyone starts the immersive theater experience in the same place: Within four pink walls that set the scene of a bar/nightclub called “Charmed.” There, we meet the characters of Marcus, Delius, Voya, George, Tai, Larry and Shydel. Over the course of 90 minutes, the audience gets a glimpse in the lives and relationships of these men and women as we see integral scenes into their lives leading up to a performance by Ms. Hope Chest (played by Lawrence Washington aka Miss Lawrence).
Having been given an orange bracelet, I followed George (Christopher Livingston) as he meets Delius (Alphonso Walker Jr.) in the bar, only to later go to a clinic to find that he is HIV positive. My group also witnessed the a relationship between Marcus (Ulric Alfred Taylor) and Shydel (Kamarick Mackey). When Marcus goes to the clinic, he is negative. The rest of the work unfolds on the two tangents — Marcus in love with Shydel and George coming to terms with his new status and what that means going forward.
The audience is moved through rooms created in a warehouse space within the Morgan Arts Complex. When a scene ends, we are escorted to and from each scene by the actors and theater staff. The audience visits the living room of Marcus’ mom (Carolyn Michelle Smith) and Delius’ mother (Saadiqa Kamillah Muhammad) as they tell the audience what they want and don’t want for their children, already young men — the struggle for normalcy in a world where life spans are shortened routinely by violence, police, stigma, fear.
We get a front seat for how George and Marcus respond to the news of their statuses. We sit on the sidelines in Marcus’ room as he lets down his guard to talk about feelings and expresses them with Shydel (there is a dance scene that will make you cry). We go to church, equipped with hymnals and handheld fans; we are on the sidelines in the dressing room as Larry rages against the rate Black men have died from AIDS. Along the way, the dulcet sounds of Voya (Meredith Noel) and Washington imbues each space with a gravitas for the HIV/AIDS epidemic and how it has impacted the Black community, a population that accounts for a higher proportion of new HIV diagnoses
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compared to other races and ethnicities, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The lighting of each setting, colors of each room, the actors engaging with an audience member here and there all impart a feeling of being involved in a production as part of the crew, to show and feel the need for more education and support for Black bisexual, gay and queer men who often have to live in fear of their being outed over their sexuality. Each of the characters presents an opportunity for an audience member to connect with a personal lived experience, while also confronting how their experiences and biases may contribute to the stigma that impacts communities.
At the end of the experience, the director Logan Vaughn and presenting sponsor ViiV Healthcare hosted a conversation with the audience to talk about what scene in the immersive experience spoke to them the most.
“No experience is the same in the play,” Vaughn said when an audience member asked how the group with a different wristband experienced the work. She encourages people to talk about “As Much As I Can” and share it with people so they can come experience it.
The production is by the New York-based company Harley & Co., which creates entertainment pieces for clients such as the pharmaceutical company ViiV Healthcare, which specialized in medicines to treat and prevent HIV/AIDS. (Information about the medicines is given as part of the post-show conversation.)
Company manager Darius Brown of Harley & Co. said the pandemic shut down the touring work in 2020, but it’s back on track.
Brown said a Johns Hopkins University evaluation showed a greater commitment from audience members to stand up for people living with HIV and LGBTQ+ communities after seeing the work. Brown believes the way in which “As Much As I Can” is presented breaks down barriers that a normal play about HIV and AIDS doesn’t. He said he believed so much in the project, he left a career in broadcast journalism to do what he could to help the production. It’s “a compelling journey I couldn’t resist being a part of,” he said.
“As Much As I Can” runs through Oct. 21 at the Morgan Arts Complex, 3622 S. Morgan St.; free (ages 18+) at www.eventbrite.com