Theater Reaches People Through Compassion, Humor, and Truth  

Many young people today feel they have learned everything they need to know about safer sex. However, with at least half of all new HIV infections among people under the age of twenty-one, there is a clear need for continued education.

MAPP, the Multicultural AIDS/HIV Peer Program at U.C. Berkeley, seeks to reduce the incidence of HIV infection among communities of color, which face disproportionately high rates of new infection cases each year, especially the African-American, Chicano, and Latino communities.

The MAPP peer health educators use theater as an innovative and interactive method of improving sexual literacy by educating the campus community about the prevention of HIV and AIDS. They create and perform an hour long play focusing on HIV/AIDS awareness and its impact on communities of color, with an emphasis on culturally relevant education and resources. The theater presentation allows youth to look at their own perceptions of themselves through the characters, and to understand the impact that HIV can have on people just like them.

Much like what people look forward to when they go to the movies, MAPP attempts to foster a sense of relaxation, entertainment, and an escape from reality. At the same time, they recognize that movies impact their audience and make them think more critically about themselves by focusing on someone else's "reality.” MAPP draws from this idea and uses theater as a method to challenge youth to look at themselves more closely, without feeling preached to or attacked.

The most recent production, The Sex Files Reloaded follows the lives of six Cal students who are all connected through a web of romantic and sexual relationships. Their shared experiences and conflicts lead each of them to realize that they don’t know everything they thought they did about themselves or each other.

REACHING OUT

Over the past decade, MAPP has developed nine different theater scripts, delivered to twelve hundred college students, community groups and high schools each year. Over two hundred thirty Cal students have participated as MAPP peers; more than 75 percent of them have been African-American or Chicano/Latino. Because of its focus on communities of color, MAPP has broken new ground in reaching African-American and Chicano/Latino campus and community groups. The program has been received with enthusiasm, prompting feedback such as "I'll make sure my partner and I have the same definition of monogamy" and "It made me think twice about my actions."

MAPP is recognized as a key campus program in improving sexual literacy because it provides HIV education from a down-to-earth and truthful perspective. The program has become an annual presentation for orientations, retreats and meetings for African-American and Chicano/Latino student groups. Related to LGBTQ issues, MAPP has performed at the UCLGBTIA Statewide Conference and for UC Berkeley's Queer Awareness Week.

One of the most successful MAPP events was in April 2004, as part of a one-year grant from the American College Health Association (ACHA). MAPP partnered with numerous African-American student groups to organize a 3-hour evening of performances to bring greater attention to the HIV epidemic in the Black community, which drew over 200 attendees. In addition to a presentation of the MAPP play, the evening also included a freestyle hip-hop show with HIV themes, two campus dance troupes performing pieces, and several fraternities and sororities doing step performances about HIV. A few years earlier, MAPP also had a profound impact at the Raza Health Fair held for Berkeley residents, with over seventy-five immigrant Latinos in the audience. Using a tailored script, the students performed in English and Spanish, and demonstrated how Latino parents could have respectful and appropriate dialogue with their children about sexuality.

Comments on the performances from audience members:

• “The reality that we can actually get an STD is still hard for me to accept/believe.”
• “I thought this performance was awesome! I love that Anthony’s character challenges assumptions about sexuality.”
• “It was really moving. I liked and enjoyed the play. It conveyed a lot of issues that are dealt with in real life. I think the classroom setting (one script started and ended with a mock UC Berkeley classroom scene) made it more understandable and something I could relate to.”

Comments from peer educators who participated in MAPP:

• “I think it’s a great way to get people engaged and motivated to think about health in a different way. By bringing a lot of people together toward a centralized theme of HIV, we were able to make talking about health and health issues, specifically safer sex and HIV in a comfortable way in a safe space. Most people are scared or unsure about talking about HIV or do not know how to bring up the issue. By putting the issue out into the open, it forced people to face the issue and think about it, and it encourages a message that it is normal and healthy to protect yourself, educate yourself, educate others, and practice a healthy lifestyle.”

• “ I like the fact that when I tell someone about my participation in a program like this, they become fully interested and immediately take it seriously. I feel like the more involvement there is, the more others will wish to be involved or at least knowledgeable.”

• “I strongly believe that this program is a wonderful way to inform people about sexuality, HIV, and other issues surrounding them. The entertainment portion draws the crowd and the information touches their hearts.”

For more information about MAPP, the Multicultural AIDS/HIV Peer Program, visit www.uhs.berkeley.edu, or contact Cristobal Olivares, Staff Coordinator, U.C. Berkeley Tang Center, Health Promotion, 510-643-9061, cmo@berkeley.edu.