Ed Sparan

Educator, director, actor, writer

In the 1980s I was an actor in NYC and dealt with the challenges and rejections of being openly gay and over weight in a difficult time at the height of the AIDS epidemic and the pinnacle of its stigma in society. In 1990 I left NYC for San Francisco. I was the artistic director of the PWA ( Persons With AIDS ) Theatre their we used theater games and workshops to tell stories and create theatre. My play BERTS BIG BED came out of one of these workshops and was successful regionally. This began my journey of using Arts and the theatre to tell the AIDS story and educate people about HIV and people's lives. I move to Ft. Lauderdale in 1993 doing events and productions with The Public Theatre of South Florida. During the day I worked in the field of HIV and at night wrote, directed and performed in LGBTQ theatre. I also began at this time my artwork, sculptures, glass paintings. and other mixed medias. In 1994 I was event coordinator for the 25th Anniversary of Stonewall in NYC and wrestled in Gay Games placing 5th in wrestling. By 2000 I was deeply immersed in many aspects of the community and though i was an HIV educator, I became HIV positive in 2002 at the age of 39. I wrote and directed LGBTQ plays but with my artwork i focused more on HIV inspired artwork. This lead me to a project on the founding committee in 2011 to create an AIDS Museum. in 2014 our dream became reality and we opened the 1st and only World AIDS Museum and Educational Center in the world. I was appointed the Museum Director providing educational programs at the museum and in the schools, In our gallery at the museum i conducted tours of the AIDS timeline display beginning in 1908, In our art gallery i create many artistic displays and exhibits including the 30 year history of ACT UP. We flew in Larry Kramer from NYC for the opening weekend and it was a joy to have him here. I create many pieces of art work but my 10 year ribbon has become world famous in magazines because of the museum. For 10 years I saved all my HIV medicine bottles i ingested. After 10 years of meds it was 417 bottles of medication all bottles were painted red and glued into a giant 5 foot tall red ribbon. I left the museum in 2018 but my 10 year red ribbon is still there at the museum. Since 2018. I work at Broward Health doing HIV education and PREP for its 7 clinics and 3 hospitals. With this position I am still able to teach in the schools, speak at the library and do a monthly class at Covenant House. in 2018 i created my own non profit 501c3 The Epiphany Theatre. We have done productions such as NUNSENSE AMEN, The exciting ARROW COLLAR MAN about forgotten LGBTQ artist J C Leyendecker. Currently we are doing the old format we learned at The PWA theatre and performing THE WHY Chronicles, a play were men in an HIV positive support group journalled their stories and those stories were presented on stage on Sept. 22, next month. In Ft, Lauderdale is the Pride Center of equality Park a 5 Arce campus for the LGBTQ community. On this campus is a 4 story senior apartment complex, I live there in one of the apartments and recently moved my theatre company from its location on 30th St. to its new home here at my home. On this campus in the community room downstairs on the first floor. This year our local newspaper OUTSL voted me as one of the 50 OUT and PROUD people of Broward County. at 60 i have 40 years of service to my LGBTQ community and 40 more to go !