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The (Bad) Boy Next Door, Tony Valenzuela’s fascinating debut solo performance is as sweet as it is raw. This is a young gay man’s coming of age story with a twist or two. Of course, this piece is scandalously controversial—how can a performance about a young HIV-positive gay man’s honest account of barebacking, pornography, and prostitution, by anything but? Valenzuela, however, frames his performance in a larger history of gay men’s sexual and political culture. The (Bad) Boy Next Door, like the best of queer performance, brings to light queer culture’s darker and more disturbing worlds. What a thrill then to see a solo performance that speaks from the head, heart, and groin and asks us, as spectators, to do so too. Whether or not we agree with all of his choices, The (Bad) Boy Next Door nonetheless provokes us into important and timely discussion of sex, politics, and community. Tony’s work not only reminds us that AIDS still matters, it also reminds us that performance remains one of our most potent means to think through the challenges of contemporary queer life. (excerpted from review by David Roman) • Tony Valenzuela, a Writer/Performer/sex worker/activist, is one of the gay community’s most controversial figures. As an HIV-positive gay man, Valenzuela broke from the rank and file of AIDS activism by publicly affirming the meaning and value of bareback sex--sex without condoms. Perhaps more than anyone else in America, Valenzuela has influenced the dialogue around sex and HIV prevention to include the full breadth and reality of gay male sexuality. Poz magazine calls Valenzuela "AIDS activism’s most misunderstood man." In 1998, in collaboration with performer/author Michael Kearns, he wrote his first solo work, The (Bad) Boy Next Door, which is an autobiographical one-man show. Valenzuela has been featured extensively in print, television, and radio, gay and non-gay media worldwide. |
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