the play is written by larry cramer, the original aids activist and founder of act up. it's one of the ways he is marketing and the 30th anniversary with the cases of hiv and aids. that was on june 5th, 1981. other cases followed and by 1982, it had a name. we are talking about aids. aids and hiv infect more than 30 million people in the world and of the million who is died, many are remembered and many of these are called the aids memorial quilt. this is one of them. this is the executive director of the aids foundation. thank you very much for joining us. it's an important anniversary and we want more progress. how has this helped? the fight against hiv and aids and awareness. >> i think the quilt in the original founding was a place where people could come to mourn and to heal and it gathered the community together outside the gay community and mobilized the kind of action through artistic expression. it's transformed into one of the most compelling pieces of prevention, education that we have. >> me about this piece of the quilt. >> i think why we selected this one

the play is an autobiographical account by larry cramer, widely regarded as the most influential aids activist. >> letter from the author. >> reporter: he still hands out leaflets outside the theater urging action by those moved by the play. >> thank you so much. >> it still makes me cry a lot. because it represents a lot of people who died needlessly and who continue to die needlessly. >> reporter: after the first five cases in 1981 the numbers grew steadily. within a year there were more than 200. the centers for disease control tracked the spread, allowing nbc to report. >> the scientists say this probably means they are dealing with some new deadly sexually transmitted disease. >> reporter: today according to the u.n., 60 million have been infected and 30 million have died. originally thought to be limited to the gay population, the disease clearly was spread heterosexually, widely in africa, but throughout the world. >> i will have to retire. >> reporter: celebrities including magic johnson announced they were hiv positive, hoping to remove the stigma and raise money for research