SOURCE: "AIDS Enters the American Theater: As Is and The Normal Heart, in AIDS: The Literary Response, edited by Emmanuel S. Nelson, Twayne Publishers, 1992, pp. 131-39.

In the following essay, Shatzky contrasts the polemical approach to the AIDS crisis in The Normal Heart to the highly personal focus of As Is, an AIDS play by William Hoffman.

When William Hoffman's As Is opened in early March 1985 at the Circle Repertory Theatre, followed a month later by Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart at the Public Theatre, they were not the first plays on the subject of AIDS produced in this country. Jeff Hagedorn's monologue One was performed earlier, and in 1984 Seven Stages Theater of Atlanta produced Warren which was performed in Hawaii and San Francisco. The Aids Show, which originated in San Francisco, also preceded the New York debuts of As Is and The Normal Heart. But, as with...