Stagestruck: Theater, AIDS, and the Marketing of Gay America »

Sarah Schulman is an award-winning playwright, novelist, and non-fiction writer. She is the author of seven novels, including After Delores, People in Trouble, Rat Bohemia, and, most recently, Shimmer, and the nonfiction work My American History: Lesbian and Gay Life during the Reagan/Bush Years. A longtime activist, Schulman was one of the first members of ACT UP in New York and a co-founder of the Lesbian Avengers. Over the past twenty years she has contributed to numerous publications, including the Village Voice, the Nation, the New York Times, Gay Community News, and Interview. A recipient of the 1997 Stonewall Award, Schulman lives in New York City.

An interrogation of the play Rent and its commodification of the work and life experiences of gay men, lesbians, and people with AIDS.

Michael Paller

What Schulman asks is simple: Must we continue sacrificing the memories of those who have died in this epidemic to hawk another album, a T-shirt, and a bottle of Absolut? Her answer in this powerful, provocative work is equally direct: Don't lie about our lives. -- Village Voice