(Wow, Oskar, that was a pretty good idea.) Oskar Eustis, of San Francisco's Eureka Theater Company (who is now artistic director of the New York Public Theater), had been impressed by Kushner's early play, A Bright Room Called Day, and commissioned him to write what would become Angels in America. Interestingly, however, it wasn't even Kushner who first decided he needed to write a play about AIDS in the gay community. Undoubtedly, this struggle is part of what fed the creation of Angels in America. Kushner didn't come to terms with his sexuality until his mid-twenties. He was still deeply in the closet, however.

( source)īy the time college rolled around, the future playwright was back in Manhattan again, earning his bachelor's degree at Columbia University. By the time I was eleven there was no doubt. I knew that I felt slightly different than most of the boys I was growing up with.

I have fairly clear memories of being gay since I was six. So who is this Tony Kushner? Where did this theatrical superhero come from? Kushner was born in Manhattan in July 1956, but he grew up in Lake Charles, Louisiana. It was called by theater critic Frank Rich of the New York Times 'a radial rethinking of American political drama.' This revolutionary piece of theater basically won every award a play can possibly win: a Pulitzer, a Tony, a Drama Desk, a New York Critics Circle – the list keeps going and going. Ever since the debut of his monster megahit Angels in America, Kushner has been one of the most widely respected playwrights on the planet.Īngels explores the AIDS epidemic in the gay community in the 1980s. Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches IntroductionĪny time people start trying to put together a list of 'greatest living American playwrights' the name Tony Kushner usually pops up.

Angels in america part one