The AIDS Lady, a one-person performance by Anna De Luna, will explore various characters while engaging audience members with stories of courageous youth and the HIV positive population she serves. The original piece uses theatre as a tool to raise awareness of the issue of HIV/AIDS – as Ms. De Luna will perform a rapid HIV test on herself to encourage others to get tested.
Anna De Luna is an actor, writer, and HIV prevention activist. She received her training at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City and has toured with the National Theater of the Performing Arts, Mixed Blood, and the American Theater Company in Brussels, Belgium. Ms. De Luna has performed in several productions at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, the Jump Start Performance Company, the Festival Libre Enganche. She has also acted with Attic Rep and appeared at the San Pedro Playhouse in the production Anna In The Tropics as Conchita for which she received a San Antonio Globe Award for Best Actress in a Drama.
In 2008 she wrote The AIDS Lady, a truthful/comedic one-woman play that grew from her real-life drama working as an HIV tester at the San Antonio AIDS Foundation. This piece was initially funded and performed in non-traditional spaces such as gay bars, churches, public housing projects, and Walgreens parking lots. Ms. De Luna was awarded a NALAC NFA Grant and produced a full production of The AIDS Lady at the Guadalupe Theater for at-risk Latino/African-American teens. In February 2016, De Luna was selected as Creative of the Month by the City of San Antonio Department of Culture and Creative Development.
This event is free and open to the public, sponsored by Palo Alto College’s Center for Mexican American Studies, Student Life, and Student Activities Fee.
Source:This article was written by Palo Alto College