TONY KUSHNER

NEW GAY-THEMED TONY KUSHNER PLAY TO OPEN IN MINNEAPOLIS
The Guthrie Theater announced the debut of Kushner's new play
The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism With a Key to the Scriptures

Minneapolis, Minn. — (AP) Set in Brooklyn, N.Y., the play "will have a family dynamic, and it will be dealing directly with gay issues," Guthrie director Joe Dowling said. The theater, which has never done a Kushner play, started discussing the possibility of a world premiere with Kushner late last year, Dowling said. "I have great admiration for Tony's work," Dowling said. "Tony is always engaged with the issues - both political and social issues - that really resonate with the audience." The theater also wanted to establish itself as a place for both classical and contemporary works, and hopes the partnership with Kushner will let the world know it's now in the business for world premieres, Dowling said. The Guthrie opened an elaborate new three-stage theater overlooking the Mississippi in June 2006. "This is an indication of a big change," Dowling said. "We want to be seen as one of those theaters that creates new works for the American stage."
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Premieres 15 - MAY - 2009

Tony KUSHNER

Kushner, 52, is a political playwright.

In 1995, Kushner told Mother Jones that he “would hate to write anything that wasn’t” part of a political movement. “I would like my plays to be of use to progressive people. I think preaching to the converted is exactly what art ought to do.”
"Kushner’s writing concerns the downtrodden and oppressed. Themes recurring in his work are the struggles of gays, of Jews, of blacks--of gay Jews and gay blacks, sometimes--and other minorities for the justice he believes they are so often denied."
Out and About with Tony Kushner
by Ted Merwin & David Zax
The World Congress of GLBT Jews: Keshet Ga'avah
(... great story on Kushner).



b. 16 – JUL – 1956, New York City

Kushner grew up in Lake Charles, Louisiana, a major cultural center in the Cajun Country. His parents are classically trained musicians; they encouraged Kushner and his siblings to explore literature and the arts. The children were rewarded a dollar for each poem they memorized and recited.

In 1974, he moved to New York City to attend Columbia University, where he earned a B.A. in English Literature in 1978. He received a masters in theater directing at NYU in 1984.





Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes (1993)

Kushner’s major work, a two-part epic dealing with the themes of homosexuality, the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s, and spirituality in the US. He addresses the American brand of morality “in a nation of diverse and often conflicted views and values.”
The play is heavy with black comedy and special effects. Biblical references are abundant with key scenes at the Angel of Bethesda statue in Central Park and surreal voyages to Antarctica and Heaven.

Part I: Millennium Approaches (Pulitzer Prize, Tony Award)

Part II: Perestroika (Tony Award)

Literary critic Harold Bloom included the play in his controversial list of the most important literary works of the century, The Western Canon (1994)

A Bright Room Called Day

[more] PLAYS

Yes, Yes, No, No (1985)
Stella (1987)
Hydriotaphia (1987)
The Illusion (1988)
A Bright Room Called Day (1987)
Widows (1991) Slavs!

Slavs! Thinking about the Longstanding Problems of Virtue and Happiness (1995)
A Dybbuk; or, Between Two Worlds (1997)
The Good Person of Szechuan(1997)
Love's Fire: Seven New Plays Inspired by Seven Shakespearean Sonnets (1998)
Henry Box Brown; or, The Mirror of Slavery (1998)
Homebody/Kabul (2001)
Caroline; or, Change (2002)

On production in Central Park.

WRESTLING WITH ANGELS

“Playwright Tony Kushner remains a major highlight at this festival. Director Freida Lee Mock unobtrusively explores the evolution of Kushner as artist, son, political activist and gay man, and like a good play, the film is divided into four acts.
Through Kushner, we see the added evolution of a country torn apart by war, inequality and a certain didactic politics. The end result is a magnificent film that so eloquently explores what it is like to be both Jewish and gay in the 21lst century America, both together and separately.
The film is at times blisteringly hilarious as well as moving and ferociously intelligent. It’s an exquisite work by an Oscar winning filmmaker who lets her complex and fascinating subject tell his story in his own well-observed way.”

- Paul Fischer, DARK HORIZONS


resources:
http://www.wrestlingwithangelsthemovie.com/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/
http://biography.jrank.org/pages/1616/Kushner-Tony-1956.html
http://www.glbtjews.org/article.php3?id_article=501
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2007/10/26/kushnerplay/