About the writer/producer Director & Dramatist, award-winning Concert Pianist & Lecturer, Zachary Dunbar’s professional career began in music before branching out into writing and directing for the stage. He studied at Rollins College, Yale University and was a Fulbright Scholar at the Royal College of Music (London). Following his studies, he launched into an active concert and teaching career. In recent years he has written and produced several award-winning musicals and plays both at the Edinburgh Festival and London fringe theatre. His interest in modern adaptations of Greek Tragedy led to a PhD at Royal Holloway (University of London). He is preparing his monograph for publication. Forthcoming theatre productions in London include a dance-based production of Oedipus and a version of Antigone that explores forensic science and human rights issues. He is also currently collaborating on a new musical. Zachary’s interest in the Midwest stems from his father’s side of the family, having roots in both Missouri and Texas. He also spent many summers tending to livestock at his grandparents’ farm in Hallsville, Missouri. About ‘The Ballad of Eddy Tyrone’ and World AIDS Day A ballad is a song about a journey with a moral tale. It sounds like long-ago days, and also like part of the everyday. The ‘Ballad of Eddy Tyrone’ tells the journey made by two men in Texas during the mid-80s when the spread of AIDS caused profound uncertainty. Even the man-loving side of the Texan Marlboro man, invisible in his four by four Chevy, Stetson hat and starched jeans, was made visible by an unseeing virus which was blind to race, colour or creed. As a radio play, the sound world of not so long-ago nostalgia haunts the story of ‘Eddy Tyrone’: the dream of love in urban cowboy country. One also hears the everyday timelessness one finds in Greek tragedy such as facing up to one’s past, being held accountable for one’s actions, or reversals of fortune. While the world has grown-up and is now facing the far-reaching challenges of the AIDS epidemic, the virus, and the moralising biases against those who carry the HIV virus within them, remain ever-present and true to form. The Ballad of Eddy Tyrone is a remembrance of things past and present.
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