Reagan's 'Silence = Death' AIDS policies explored in new dance piece

As dance choreographer, performer and instructor Peter Carpenter reflects on the time he first heard of former president Ronald Reagan's diagnosis with Alzheimer's disease in 1994: the words "poetic justice" come to mind. Having recently lost a number of friends to HIV/AIDS in the previous year, he had played witness to the dementia that often sets in during the disease's deadly tail end. Given Reagan's inaction on the growing epidemic, his path toward a similar fate felt ironic to say the least.

Carpenter's emotions - self-described as an "obsession" - toward the Reagan administration's mishandling of the early days of HIV/AIDS have served as the inspiration for a new dance-theater work called My Fellow Americans, debuting Thursday, October 8 at the Hamlin Park Studio Theater.

The work, featuring Carpenter and a cast of four other performers, is described as exploring Reagan's "shifting identity from the perspectives of the 'special interest groups' that his rhetoric and policies consistently admonished." Building from his platform of "family values," Carpenter says the piece has grown far beyond simply a history lesson on the president's words.

"The piece has become much less about Reagan than about everything [he] was trying to ignore," Carpenter, who is an instructor at Columbia College, shared. "His vision of America didn't include gays, it didn't include lesbians, it didn't include people with drug addictions or even people of color. Our response to that is at times angry, at times compassionate and at times funny. It offers a look at the people he couldn't see."

Shaping My Fellow Americans

Carpenter originally conceptualized the piece as a solo in his show Cowboy Down in 2006, but shortly thereafter began to envision building a show around it to further explore the themes of marginalization through inactive rhetoric. He found a group of performers with whom he spent over a year and a half developing the current shape of My Fellow Americans. He said the collaboration is reflective in nature, welcoming remembrance of a frustrating time in our nation's history.

"We don't want to forget the fact that we, as a nation, allowed this administration to happen and follow good about it - as many still do - while insane asylums were closed, the insane became the homeless and people on welfare were turned into villains," Carpenter shared. "This is a piece about humanness and performing that frailty and vulnerability. It is not a text-based history, because history is never actually about text. It's about bodies, dead bodies."

When asked whether he saw parallels between today's political climate and that of the Reagan era, particularly as HIV/AIDS rates are climbing among certain age groups such as the very young and the very old, Carpenter noted more similarities than differences.

In addition to commonalities in rhetorical style between the two, he pointed specifically to the health care debate and the current economic crisis as part of the long-term fallout from Reagan's policies.

"I think there are many connections between Reagan and Obama in the rhetoric they use, first of all. Obviously, Obama uses it for a different ideology, but the language is quite similar," he shared. "So much of this piece relates to how frail we truly are as humans and how we all need a safety net no matter how well we think we are protected. We need each other. We need to help find the space and resources for all of us to share on this increasingly crowded planet."

Carpenter sees dance as an ideal way to explore those connections, responding to the speeches and addresses through movement. He emphasized the result is one that, in addition to its obviously reflective mood, has its share of surprisingly funny, if slightly creepy moments - some of the dancers done rubber Reagan masks during the show. He urged audiences to not fear the program as a "history lesson."

"The show has been a long time coming and I'm excited to finally see it coming together," he said. "It's really quite comical in places and we like to make fun of ourselves, too. The audience should not be scared!"

My Fellow Americans plays at the Hamline Park Studio Theater, 3035 N. Hoyne, Thursdays and Fridays, October 8, 9, 14 and 15 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets and more information are available by visiting .