Onstage for one night only, Radiant Child at the Dali Museum introduces Keith Haring, the artist and muralist whose simple, graffiti-like imagery and brilliant color palettes revolutionized pop art in the 1980s. Haring, who died of AIDS in 1990 at 31, is also heralded as an important figure in the struggle for LGBTQ rights.
Presented as a staged reading by St. Petersburg actor Chad Jacobs, the show is produced by American Stage. The theater company will donate a portion of the proceeds to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.
As much as the production is a tribute to Haring and his accomplishments, its Tampa Bay connection is unbreakable: Jeff Norton, the prolific bay area actor and playwright who wrote and first performed Radiant Child in 1992, was murdered in 2010. His art has outlived him.
Jeff Norton performing “Radiant Child,” 1992. Video screengrab.
“When I first heard about this play,” said director Anthony Gervais, “my sole interest in it was because I’m a fan of Keith Haring, his work and his life story. Just the sheer amount of work he produced at such a young age.”
Jacobs, who had performed Radiant Child on previous occasions, told Gervais about the Norton work, which includes stretches of dialogue taken from Haring’s own writings and interviews.
“Right then, I said ‘I have to find this play,’” Gervais recalled. “I don’t know what it is, but something just compelled me.
“So much of the play deals with legacy, and what we leave behind, our impact, and questions of mortality and purpose – sort of in the same way you can’t help but view Haring or Basquiat or any of those artists differently because of their tragic deaths.”
Chad Jacobs in a 2017 staged reading of “Radiant Child.” Photo provided.
That’s when it struck him: Jeff Norton’s story arc was tragically similar. “I didn’t know him personally, at all, but I certainly knew of his mythical status, almost. I knew that the Theatre Tampa Bay Awards were previously named for him.”
Norton, a well-regarded local performer who worked in the theater program at Shorecrest Preparatory School and taught at the University of South Florida, was killed by his neighbor, reportedly over a drug dispute. Norton was 55.
Norton’s performances of Radiant Child were praised. He inhabited the iconic street artist.
Gervais thinks it might have been divine intervention – or kismet, or something – that the Dali Museum’s gallery-wide exhibit of locally-made murals, Outside In, will have just opened.
After the performance, “We’ll have Jenee Priebe, from the SHINE Mural Festival, talking about the visual arts perspective,” Gervais said. “Chad and I are going to speak to the process and the preservation of the legacy of a playwright such as this.”
Gervais is directing Radiant Child as part of American Stage’s Fresh Ink series. It’s a “legacy event, a celebration of one of St. Petersburg’s playwrights and performers that I think a lot of people knew,” he said.
“Something has reached across time and compelled me to do this. I think, at the very least, speaking his name and putting his work out there is powerful.”
The Tuesday event begins at 6 p.m. For additional information and tickets, click here.
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