If you regularly attend theater and other cultural events in the Palm Springs area, chances are you’ve run into Danny Kopelson. With his warm, welcoming air and a twinkle in his eye, he’s not easy to forget.
Born in Evanston, Ill., Kopelson was a creative kid. In school, he hung around theater people, mostly girls—which led to bullying. The performing arts world welcomed him with open arms, and he felt safe.
Kopelson performed in musicals throughout high school and college, and he thought about pursuing acting or dancing as a career, though he knew how tough it could be. While his mother was encouraging, his father was concerned about his son’s ability to make a living.
His father had a successful career selling corrugated cardboard, and his mother was a housewife. After years of a marriage that Kopelson describes as “troublesome,” his parents split in a long, messy divorce. That event was tough on Kopelson, who was the youngest of three boys.
Kopelson went on to graduate from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with a degree in advertising and communications. Northwestern University was located in his hometown, but Kopelson was reluctant to attend grad school there, since it meant living at home with his mother—but they ended up getting along well, and he completed his graduate work in advertising in 1981.
After college, Kopelson’s first job was at the Hyatt Regency—as a server at a Stetson’s restaurant.
“It was an amazing education in customer service and sales,” he said. “The Hyatt later became very active with my work on AIDS galas, since the hospitality industry was hit hard by the disease.”
Later he was hired to do advertising for Marshall Field’s, a high-end department store in Chicago. “I loved it!” Kopelson said. “I still have friends from those days. It was a great atmosphere to be in.”
Kopelson said one brave act by Marshall Field’s in the mid-’80s changed the entire trajectory of his career. The store, which had a 100-person ad agency, chose to support HIV/AIDS patients as their main charitable cause.
“That was giant news!” Kopelson said. “This was not New York; this was the Midwest, and people freaked out. They were burning their store credit cards, boycotting the store, etc. The retail world was quite stuffy back then.”
Kopelson was tapped to be the fundraising liaison between the store and the AIDS Foundation of Chicago. That lead to a position as a special events fundraiser and marketing expert with the foundation itself. He was also instrumental in creating educational programs about HIV and AIDS.
“Looking back, it was probably one of the happiest times professionally, but also one of the worst, because so many people were dying,” Kopelson said.
Kopelson is one of the founders of the Chicago Gay Men’s Chorus. In the ’80s and early ’90s, it seemed that everyone in the chorus—and the entire arts community—was passing away from AIDS. “You’d go to rehearsal on a Sunday and hear that someone else had died,” he said.
During that time, Kopelson himself was also diagnosed with HIV. “You had to have faith, but I spent some time wondering when the other shoe was going to drop.”
The remaining 25 years of Kopelson’s career largely involved AIDS fundraising and the arts.
“When I was producing galas, I was lucky to get some big stars to volunteer their time,” he said. “Most of the celebrities were terrific, including Oprah Winfrey, Chita Rivera, Kenny G., Nicollette Sheridan, Harry Hamlin and Angela Lansbury. Judith Light and Rita Moreno were the ones who wanted to know more about the AIDS Foundation. The world was being ravaged by AIDS back then. These performers caught red eyes, did interviews, rehearsals and then the show. None were paid—it was all from their hearts.”
Kopelson helped Desert Ensemble Theatre with PR and came up with the idea of Singing With the Desert Stars, a season-opening fundraiser which brings in money for the theater’s scholarship program.
One day in the ’80s, Kopelson got a call from a friend in the Chicago dance community, which was being decimated by AIDS; this friend wanted to do something to help. He proposed an event with all the Chicago dance companies on one stage together. The two joined forces with two philanthropic women—one who headed the Joffrey, and the other Hubbard Street Dance Company—and they created Dance for Life. Kopelson says the event is attended by thousands of people annually, and is still going strong after 34 years. “It’s raised millions of dollars for AIDS, which I’m very proud of.”
Because the situation with AIDS is not as acute as it once was, Dance for Life has morphed over time and expanded into a dancers’ health fund to help in other ways. “You know, if a dancer twists their ankle, they’re out (of performing)! And if someone dies, the organization helps with funeral expenses, etc. I’m very proud that it’s a grant-giving organization, and it really helped bring all the Chicago dance companies together.”
Kopelson often vacationed in Palm Springs, and in 2015, he moved here permanently. He was 55, unemployed and getting sick of frigid temperatures. “The older I got, the colder I got!” he said.
He wanted to be part of the community, so he began volunteering for groups and events like the Desert AIDS Project (now DAP Health), the Palm Springs International Film Festival, the Palm Springs Art Museum and the Human Rights Campaign. He joined both the Palm Springs Gay Men’s Chorus and the Modern Men Chorus.
He also became part of a group called the HIV+ Aging Research Project. Palm Springs has one of the largest groups of long-term HIV survivors, per capita, anywhere in the country, and possibly the world.
Coming from a place like Chicago, Kopelson was concerned when he arrived that the performing arts scene in Palm Springs might be lacking. But he’s been pleasantly surprised. “When I gave the local theater companies a chance, I found that the talent here is amazing!” he said.
During the COVID-19 shutdowns, Kopelson became involved with the Alliance of Desert Theatres, which met regularly to discuss how to address the challenges the pandemic was presenting to local theater companies. That’s where he met Jerome Elliott Moskowitz and Shawn Abramowitz, who run Desert Ensemble Theatre. Kopelson helped the company with PR and came up with the idea of Singing With the Desert Stars, a season-opening fundraiser for DET, which brings in money for the theater’s scholarship program. (I am serving as a volunteer coach for the event.)
Kopelson feels lucky that treatments for HIV have advanced to the point that in this country, it’s largely a chronic condition, rather than something fatal.
“There used to be so much stigma,” Kopelson said. “Now I am on medication which prevents me from passing the virus to anyone else. You can’t call me Typhoid Mary anymore.”
As for his legacy, Kopelson said: “I’ve always been surrounded by great people. If I can be judged by the company I kept, I was a great success.”
To learn more about Singing With the Desert Stars, which takes place Friday, Oct. 10, visit www.desertensembletheatre.org.
Bonnie Gilgallon has written theater reviews for the Independent since 2013. She hosts a digital interview show, The Desert Scene, which can be heard on www.thedesertscene.com and viewed on Mutual Broadcasting’s YouTube channel. Learn more at bonnie-g.com.