A Yellow Boat Filled with Love

True to its collaborative nature, Insight Out Theatre Collective joins forces with CITE Educational Theatre this month when it opens The Yellow Boat, a play that tells the true story of Benjamin Saar, an 8-year-old hemophiliac who contracts HIV through a blood transfusion.

His inspired drawings and paintings transform his pain and express his understanding of life through an imagination alive with dance by way of choreography from Robin Lane of Do Jump! The production will feature work by several award-winning queer artists, including actors Kurt Conroyd (Clean) and Julianna Jaffe (Hedwig and the Angry Inch), composer Wade McCollum (I Am My Own Wife) and director AndrÈs Alcal· (Men on the Verge 2).

For Alcal·, directing The Yellow Boat has been on his wish list for a long time. “I was profoundly moved by this play the first time I read it. I was inspired with the idea that it was being told through the eyes and imagination of a child. Not just any child, but the son of David Saar,” a playwright with whom Alcal· has worked. “There is a taboo in speaking to children about certain subjects, such as death, AIDS or an understanding of tolerance or lack thereof, and why certain people are alienated.”

Gay actor Matt Caffoni (West Side Story), a relative newcomer to Portland, plays Benjamin. He says The Yellow Boat deals with what happens when a community chooses to react with fear and misunderstanding—and what can be learned from the uncomplicated, open and available hearts of children.

“Benjamin is different—he is an artist, a hemophiliac, he is a person living with AIDS—and this story celebrates those differences…. He had a remarkable ability to reach out to others and to communicate at an early age his overwhelming feelings of isolation, anger, hope and acceptance,” says Caffoni, who believes it is the responsibility of the queer community to continue to break down barriers in the fight against HIV/AIDS. “We have been there in the trenches since the beginning and must continue to educate and lead by example. It is my hope that this play can begin to do just that by starting some cross-generational dialogue about love, loss and acceptance.”