Ed Sparan began his theatre career as an actor in New York City in the 1980’s. In 1990 he moved to San Francisco what he expanded his theatre career to writing and directing. He Was the artistic director of the P.W.A. Theatre ( People With AIDS ) Part theatre, part support group people told their stories of HIV/AIDS and the theatre created plays to educate and entertain. This endeavor sparked in Ed his legacy in life to educate about HIV/AIDS using theatre arts and the visual arts. He was at The PWA Theatre from 1990 to 1993 and wrote the play “Berts Big Bed” This was a hit which ran for a year and was done in several regional LGBTQ theatres. He came to Orlando in 1994 to Direct his play and decided to stay in Florida and relocated to Ft. Lauderdale. In the late 1990s he worked with The Public Theatre of South Florida as Production Manager and occasionally took an acting job In New York and always came back home. In 2002 very active as a director Ed found out he was HIV positive. This fuel his passion even more writing more plays about HIV, ” Positive Purgatives” ” Ciao Mark” “Last Gay Man On Christopher St.” “For Everhard” ” The Why Chronicles” This experience fueled not just theatre but also artwork. Ed began to explore clay and mix media sculptures. As a speaker and educator he used his writing and artwork to inform and educate about HIV/AIDS. This lead him to 2014 and he became the Director of The World AIDS Museum and Educational Center for 6 years. the only AIDS museum ... view more »
Ed Sparan began his theatre career as an actor in New York City in the 1980’s. In 1990 he moved to San Francisco what he expanded his theatre career to writing and directing. He Was the artistic director of the P.W.A. Theatre ( People With AIDS ) Part theatre, part support group people told their stories of HIV/AIDS and the theatre created plays to educate and entertain. This endeavor sparked in Ed his legacy in life to educate about HIV/AIDS using theatre arts and the visual arts. He was at The PWA Theatre from 1990 to 1993 and wrote the play “Berts Big Bed” This was a hit which ran for a year and was done in several regional LGBTQ theatres. He came to Orlando in 1994 to Direct his play and decided to stay in Florida and relocated to Ft. Lauderdale. In the late 1990s he worked with The Public Theatre of South Florida as Production Manager and occasionally took an acting job In New York and always came back home. In 2002 very active as a director Ed found out he was HIV positive. This fuel his passion even more writing more plays about HIV, ” Positive Purgatives” ” Ciao Mark” “Last Gay Man On Christopher St.” “For Everhard” ” The Why Chronicles” This experience fueled not just theatre but also artwork. Ed began to explore clay and mix media sculptures. As a speaker and educator he used his writing and artwork to inform and educate about HIV/AIDS. This lead him to 2014 and he became the Director of The World AIDS Museum and Educational Center for 6 years. the only AIDS museum in the world. Creating art gallery projects at the museum gave him great joy. His sculpture “The 10 year Ribbon” gave him national recognition and is still with the museum. HIV has changed over the years and his current series “Blue Dove” is a series of sculptures made from blue pills, The Truvada medication used for PrEP. He uses the artwork and speaks about HIV all over the country. HIV is emotional, art work is emotional, enlightening and healing. With the museum and his theatre company they worked together to do several plays about HIV. “AS IS” “The Normal Heart” “Safe Sex” “Heroes” He left the museum and began to do more theatre but theatre spaces to rent was a difficult challenge in Broward County. Most theatre company’s have their own place and no room to rent to others. In 2017 Ed signed a contract with The United Church of Christ and Elliot Hall was their permanent home. Here we are able to do our own theatre and artwork but we also leave room for others to use our space as well. In 2020 Ed published his first book. ” Always On Easy Street, Never On it” this book is about his early career in New York City. Ed had city’s planned to do book signing but COVID came along and put a halt to that. During COVID Ed tried to keep the theatre alive. It took a year and finally was able to present “Nunsense Amen ” the “Stepping Out” but that was cancelled due to COVID 2 weeks before opening. During COVID there has been alot of time at home. Ed has been writing new plays and working on a complete rewrite of his 1991 play “Berts Big Bed”
Ed Sparan began his theatre career as an actor in New York City in the 1980’s. In 1990 he moved to San Francisco what he expanded his theatre career to writing and directing. He Was the artistic director of the P.W.A. Theatre ( People With AIDS ) Part theatre, part support group people told their stories of HIV/AIDS and the theatre created plays to educate and entertain. This endeavor sparked in Ed his legacy in life to educate about HIV/AIDS using theatre arts and the visual arts. He was at The PWA Theatre from 1990 to 1993 and wrote the play “Berts Big Bed” This was a hit which ran for a year and was done in several regional LGBTQ theatres. He came to Orlando in 1994 to Direct his play and decided to stay in Florida and relocated to Ft. Lauderdale. In the late 1990s he worked with The Public Theatre of South Florida as Production Manager and occasionally took an acting job In New York and always came back home. In 2002 very active as a director Ed found out he was HIV positive. This fuel his passion even more writing more plays about HIV, ” Positive Purgatives” ” Ciao Mark” “Last Gay Man On Christopher St.” “For Everhard” ” The Why Chronicles” This experience fueled not just theatre but also artwork. Ed began to explore clay and mix media sculptures. As a speaker and educator he used his writing and artwork to inform and educate about HIV/AIDS. This lead him to 2014 and he became the Director of The World AIDS Museum and Educational Center for 6 years. the only AIDS museum in the world. Creating art gallery projects at the museum gave him great joy. His sculpture “The 10 year Ribbon” gave him national recognition and is still with the museum. HIV has changed over the years and his current series “Blue Dove” is a series of sculptures made from blue pills, The Truvada medication used for PrEP. He uses the artwork and speaks about HIV all over the country. HIV is emotional, art work is emotional, enlightening and healing. With the museum and his theatre company they worked together to do several plays about HIV. “AS IS” “The Normal Heart” “Safe Sex” “Heroes” He left the museum and began to do more theatre but theatre spaces to rent was a difficult challenge in Broward County. Most theatre company’s have their own place and no room to rent to others. In 2017 Ed signed a contract with The United Church of Christ and Elliot Hall was their permanent home. Here we are able to do our own theatre and artwork but we also leave room for others to use our space as well. In 2020 Ed published his first book. ” Always On Easy Street, Never On it” this book is about his early career in New York City. Ed had city’s planned to do book signing but COVID came along and put a halt to that. During COVID Ed tried to keep the theatre alive. It took a year and finally was able to present “Nunsense Amen ” the “Stepping Out” but that was cancelled due to COVID 2 weeks before opening. During COVID there has been alot of time at home. Ed has been writing new plays and working on a complete rewrite of his 1991 play “Berts Big Bed”
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