Guest Directors

Open Space Arts is seeking guest directors for Before We Are History, a three-week project revisiting 40 years of American plays responding to the AIDS epidemic.

Through fully staged productions, staged readings, and public conversations, the project will examine how playwrights gave voice to the fear, grief, anger, intimacy, and resilience of the crisis—and why these works remain vital today.

We are currently seeking directors for two early AIDS plays. We would be especially interested in hearing from a director who might take on both pieces, though artists are also welcome to express interest in either play individually.

One by Jeff Hagedorn
This groundbreaking solo play follows a young man attempting to understand and confront his recent AIDS diagnosis. Written during the earliest years of the epidemic, when the disease was still poorly understood and rarely discussed publicly, the approximately 30-minute monologue offers an intimate portrait of bewilderment, isolation, fear, and emerging courage. Open Space Arts is considering One for a fully staged production.

A Quiet End by Robin Swados
Set during the early years of the AIDS epidemic, A Quiet End centers on three gay men with AIDS who share a run-down Manhattan apartment after losing their jobs and being rejected by their families. Their conversations with a psychiatrist—and the arrival of a healthy former lover—lead to a moving examination of friendship, loyalty, love, mortality, and the unfinished business of their lives. Open Space Arts plans to present A Quiet End as a five-character staged reading on October 26, 2026.