FX’s groundbreaking drama Pose is donating its medical props to medical workers battling against the coronavirus pandemic.
Set in 1980’s and ’90s New York City, Pose follows the African-American and Latino LGBTQ and gender-nonconforming ballroom culture scene.
Its third series will feature the character of Bianca (Mj Rodriguez), a trans woman living with HIV, working as an HIV/AIDS counselor in a hospital.
Creator Ryan Murphy announced on Instagram that the props from the sets constructed for Bianca’s scenes would be donated to Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, to help medical staff working on the frontlines of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
“On my FX series POSE, one of our regular sets and locations is a hospital where in season 3 (spoiler) Blanca works as an AIDS/hiv counselor,” Murphy wrote. “Today we donated all our prop supplies to Mount Sinai hospital to help nurses and doctors battling the Covid outbreak. Let’s all keep giving when and where and how we can.”
Pose‘s donation of props is notable, particularly given its focus on a different pandemic — a number of its characters are HIV-positive or living with AIDS during the height of the AIDS pandemic.
The critically-acclaimed series hasn’t shied from showing the physical and emotional impact HIV/AIDS had on both individuals and the wider LGBTQ community, with characters joining grassroots movement ACT UP — which worked to try and end the pandemic — as well as attending fundraisers, funerals, and memorials for those lost to the disease.
A number of other television shows featuring medical workers and first responders have also donated props to frontline medical workers and first responders, including ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy, Station 19, and The Good Doctor, NBC’s New Amsterdam, and Fox’s The Resident.
Murphy has also donated $50,000 to a GoFundMe relief fund for support staffers in Los Angeles whose jobs in Hollywood have been lost or furloughed amid the coronavirus pandemic, as studios and networks shutter productions to limit the spread of the virus.
I remember a time when a new season of American Horror Story was something exciting. Friends would gather in front of the TV to witness what horrifying and quietly brilliant storylines Ryan Murphy had cooked up. From a coven of sardonic teenage witches in New Orleans, to ghostly next-door neighbors with a privacy problem, to a hotel co-run by a vampire and an undead serial killer trapped in a loveless marriage, AHS stood for campy maximalism and controlled shock factor. Each episode delivered something new yet grounded in a culture the show had built for itself.
You must be logged in to post a comment.