Dramatugry Statement of "Angels In America"
In a dramaturg's view in the production of Angels in America is to understand the impact of the struggle of 1980s. America was low on its feet, where Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter tried to America afetr Vietnam and Nixon with Watergate, but it never happened. This is one of the strangest plays that have ever been produced, where it carries material that many would notice as viewing the play. The play is unique and interesting to the fact that it involves with material that we still have today, but that it isn't as bad as it was back then, where it was unknown. This script seems to describe how the 1980s was and how the gays felted and how they were treated. Learning later that being gay and AIDS would be subject of the 1980s, where everyone thought that gays were the caused of AIDS.
It takes place in mid 1980s from 1985-1986 in New York City with a few scenes in Salt Lake City, Moscow and an airliner flying to San Francisco, along with others in Heaven, Hell, dream sequences and places imagined by the characters. It was decade of surviving from all of the aspects of terror that was affecting everyone in the world. HIV known AIDS was the subject of the 1980s, where it was an unknown disease until famous actor Rock Hudson died from the disease and Gia Carangi, being the first famous female to die from the disease. The unknown disease would take the lives of many, where it would not be known until the Hudson's and Carangi's death that AIDS would be factor and that it was struggle and there would be many activists like Ryan White and many others. There was no such thing as being gay until the 1980s, where they were many gay pride parades and they were nonaccepted. New York City were trying to shut down the groups of gays that were living in the area just to decrease the numbers of gays, but it was too late as the STDS was growing and many of them were dying, where it would take for a possible treatment from the disease. Anti-gay organizations were growing, where they were blaming gays for the spearding of AIDS and often referred it as the "Gay Disease". Homosexuailty was one of the new themes that America was enduring and that in the script of Angels In MAerica, it is one of the main topics of life involing Roy, Prior, Louis, and the other characters. Not many new what homosexuality was, because it was all about man and woman throughout life, but the 1980s change all of that, where they were hated by many and that AIDS was brought by them as many claimed, where no cure has been found since.
New York City was the same as usual witn Yankees still playing at Yankee Stadium trying to make the playoffs and the Mets winning championships and playing at Shea Stadium. It was still the largest city in the U.S. with Wall Street still being there, the Twin Towers were there at the time, but September 11, 2001 would destroy it. Times Square and the business that it still is today that nothing really changed in the 1985, the old cars and the new technology that was arriving lie Microsoft and the computer. Donald Trump, Leona Helmsley, and Ivan Boesky iconed the meteoric rise and fall of the rich and famous. From 1985 to 1990 the use of cocain addiction was up 35 percent, though the number of users had declined. Nancy Reagan's Just Say No campaign had great influence, where cocaine was introduced in the 1980s. Ronald Reagan declared war on drugs and was trying to get communism out of Russia andthe Berlin wall to be destroyed. The 80s continued the trends of the 60s and 70s - more divorces, more unmarrieds living together, more single parent families. Binge buying and credit became a way of life and 'Shop Til you Drop' was the way that shoppers came to the mall. The fashion world was growing as supermodeling was the topic of the 1980s also with Cyndi Lauper and her hit "Girls just want to have Fun", and Michael Jackson being the king of the 1980s. To me this was the time that the play was made and that it is about identity of the individual and the virus nown as AIDS that has been discovered. WIth this I think that the set has to be interesting and unque, where I think that it should be clearing 1985-1986 for the set to be interesting.
Who is Roy Cohn and why is this man being the subject of the play? A famous lawyer, whom had made an impact during his life and was openly gay, but he would never really admitted that he ever was. Homosexuality was supoosely the main cause that anti-gay groups were formed as they were being blamed for AIDS coming to the public surface as I would describe it. Homosexuality wasn't being accepted and the life of being gay was terrible at that time, where they were hated by everyone, because they were most liely of being affected by AIDS than a straight person. They became the blame for everyone, even Roy in the play and he is anti gay, but he is gay, which is interesting knowing by a fact that he is. Ther was alos a place known, which was a common place for gays to meet and have sex, which would be in my opinion, the most scene of the play plus the sex scene at the park. There also the drag queens that believe that they are women, but openly he is really a man and feels that he is beautiful for every male around. In the mid 1980s most of this was taled about, where the showers were closed and the people were turning on the gays and making their lives miserable.
With all of this unique information that I have covered was that 1985-1986 in AMerica was terrible and that many people were trying to save each other fro dead and hate. Ronald Reagoin did his best for Reaganomics, but that he couldn't solve the view that AIDS was killing the American people. Too many who were probably around the mid 1980s would say that it was fun, but tragic as it was going, where new disease had arrived that it makes that decade unforgettable. WIth the production, it would make the audience to never forget about the 1980s and 1985 beginning with the death of Rock Hudson, who may an impact to people of understanding about HIV. With this production it seems that adressing Reagonomics and AIDS wqas the impact of the play of learning about America coming back. Also "We Are The World", was the impact of an AIDS song throughout AMerica, written by Michael Jackson to learn about 1985-1986, where it is the "Age of AIDS".
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Educator's Learning Guide
Dear Audience,
I am pleased to have you to witness the production of Angels in America at the University Theatre at Sam Houston State University. SHSU is presenting this production to explain about how the 1980s was in America and the impact that it caused America to improve what it is today. The 1980s was the time of struggle and surviving, where America was falling and the city of New York was struggling to survive. Then one man, who would turn President of The United States by of Ronald Reagan would change the impact of the 1980s, but the deaths would never change. We are viewing life of the 1980s, where it was time of life and death occurring throughout America.
Tony Kushner wrote the play in 1989-1990, where it would later appeared on stage in 1991, where it would change the world of theatre. It would be published in 1992, where it would win the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It would also win two Tony Awards, two Drama Desk Awards, the Evening Standard Award, two Olivier Award Nominations, the New York Critics Circle Award, the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award and the LAMBDA Liberty Award for Drama. The seven hour Two Part play would be the subject of AIDS, Reaganomics, Mormonism, homosexuality, and Jewish, which was the decade of the 80s in New York City.
Imagine of being around in the 1985, listening to Michael Jackson, Madonna , Bruce Springsteen, George Michaels, and many more. Seeing the introduction of crack cocaine, MTV, AIDS, and the economy trying to improve from the 1970s. Most of us were not around at that thing, but just imagine being in New York City, the Mets were winning and the Yankees trying to make to the playoffs, Giants winning two under Bill Parcells and the Jets being losers as in the past. AIDS was the terror of the 80s, where millions of Americans were dead involving Rock Hudson, whom was the first famous star to die from the disease. The 1980s was the struggles of life, where new diseases were existing like cancer, smoking being bad for you, STDS, religion battles, an actor being President by the name of Ronald Reagan, and many more.
Each section explains about the play known as “America In Angels”, where it will provide for the audience to give a view details of what the play is about. There will be questions to be asked for the director and production team, where we would delighted to answer questions from (you) the audience.
Please don’t hesitate to call us at the University Theatre here at Sam Houston State University if you have any questions to ask. We look forward of seeing all of you to view the first production of “Angels In America” at Sam Houston State.
Carlos Ernesto Gonzalez
Dramaturg
I am pleased to have you to witness the production of Angels in America at the University Theatre at Sam Houston State University. SHSU is presenting this production to explain about how the 1980s was in America and the impact that it caused America to improve what it is today. The 1980s was the time of struggle and surviving, where America was falling and the city of New York was struggling to survive. Then one man, who would turn President of The United States by of Ronald Reagan would change the impact of the 1980s, but the deaths would never change. We are viewing life of the 1980s, where it was time of life and death occurring throughout America.
Tony Kushner wrote the play in 1989-1990, where it would later appeared on stage in 1991, where it would change the world of theatre. It would be published in 1992, where it would win the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It would also win two Tony Awards, two Drama Desk Awards, the Evening Standard Award, two Olivier Award Nominations, the New York Critics Circle Award, the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award and the LAMBDA Liberty Award for Drama. The seven hour Two Part play would be the subject of AIDS, Reaganomics, Mormonism, homosexuality, and Jewish, which was the decade of the 80s in New York City.
Imagine of being around in the 1985, listening to Michael Jackson, Madonna , Bruce Springsteen, George Michaels, and many more. Seeing the introduction of crack cocaine, MTV, AIDS, and the economy trying to improve from the 1970s. Most of us were not around at that thing, but just imagine being in New York City, the Mets were winning and the Yankees trying to make to the playoffs, Giants winning two under Bill Parcells and the Jets being losers as in the past. AIDS was the terror of the 80s, where millions of Americans were dead involving Rock Hudson, whom was the first famous star to die from the disease. The 1980s was the struggles of life, where new diseases were existing like cancer, smoking being bad for you, STDS, religion battles, an actor being President by the name of Ronald Reagan, and many more.
Each section explains about the play known as “America In Angels”, where it will provide for the audience to give a view details of what the play is about. There will be questions to be asked for the director and production team, where we would delighted to answer questions from (you) the audience.
Please don’t hesitate to call us at the University Theatre here at Sam Houston State University if you have any questions to ask. We look forward of seeing all of you to view the first production of “Angels In America” at Sam Houston State.
Carlos Ernesto Gonzalez
Dramaturg
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Websites
Reaganomics by William A. Niskanen
This websites explains about the impact that Reaganmics had chenged the U.S. economy in an effort to save America. It also explains about the history and shows all the details of what Reaganomics did to change America and to make the impact that Ronald Reagan knew that it could do for the world. It tells about the good and bad about the his plana nd how it had effectes the 1980s in America.
Click Here
Mormonism- Christian or Cult
This website explains about the history of Mormonism and the aspects that it carries with its beliefs with increasing rate of believing in the religion. It what is it is meant to be a Mormon and how a human being can be a Mormon and what it teaches to everyone. It answers asks if it is truthly being Christian or just a joke of a religion to understand.
Click Here
What is Aids?
This website explains about the disease and what the effects can do to you if are about to die. It also tells about what the disease is and what it do you your body if you are doing unprotected sex. It tells about the following procedures to follow if you were to contract the disease and what you can do to save your life.
Click Here
The impact of AIDS
These site shows about the timeline of the impact that AIDS had done to America and to the rest of the world that made it a dangerous and shows about the most important events of the 1980s and that it domianted the 1980s. This site also shows about what the 1980s had impact in that decade of destruction by AIDS.
Click Here
AMERICAN CULTURAL HISTORY Kingwood College Library
This website explains about the history of the 1980s from Arts to Television with fashion and events that change the 1980s. This maybe the most important website, where it is explaining about the decade that no one would ever forget. The 1980s was fun alright with drugs, AIDS, and unemployment rises, but Reaganomics would change that.
Click Here
This websites explains about the impact that Reaganmics had chenged the U.S. economy in an effort to save America. It also explains about the history and shows all the details of what Reaganomics did to change America and to make the impact that Ronald Reagan knew that it could do for the world. It tells about the good and bad about the his plana nd how it had effectes the 1980s in America.
Click Here
Mormonism- Christian or Cult
This website explains about the history of Mormonism and the aspects that it carries with its beliefs with increasing rate of believing in the religion. It what is it is meant to be a Mormon and how a human being can be a Mormon and what it teaches to everyone. It answers asks if it is truthly being Christian or just a joke of a religion to understand.
Click Here
What is Aids?
This website explains about the disease and what the effects can do to you if are about to die. It also tells about what the disease is and what it do you your body if you are doing unprotected sex. It tells about the following procedures to follow if you were to contract the disease and what you can do to save your life.
Click Here
The impact of AIDS
These site shows about the timeline of the impact that AIDS had done to America and to the rest of the world that made it a dangerous and shows about the most important events of the 1980s and that it domianted the 1980s. This site also shows about what the 1980s had impact in that decade of destruction by AIDS.
Click Here
AMERICAN CULTURAL HISTORY Kingwood College Library
This website explains about the history of the 1980s from Arts to Television with fashion and events that change the 1980s. This maybe the most important website, where it is explaining about the decade that no one would ever forget. The 1980s was fun alright with drugs, AIDS, and unemployment rises, but Reaganomics would change that.
Click Here
Educator's Learning Guide
-Angels in America Part One: Millennium Approaches was written and workshopped by Tony Kushner in 1989-1990. It premiered in 1991, but was published in 1992. It carries a cast of 21 characters for five men and three females to be casted.
-The story turns on October-November 1985-January 1986 in New York City. Also events in Salt Lake City, Moscow, Russia. Being in a airliner flying to San Francisco, along with others being Heaven, Hell, dream sequences and places imagined by the characters. focuses on the stories of two troubled couples, one gay, one straight: "word processor" Louis Ironson terms and his lover Prior Walter and Mormon lawyer Joe Pitt and his wife Harper. After the funeral of Louis's grandmother, Prior tells him that he has contracted AIDS, and Louis panics. He tries to care for Prior but soon realizes he cannot stand the strain and fear. Meanwhile, Joe is offered a job in the Justice Department by Roy Cohn: his right-wing, bigoted mentor and friend. But the trouble is Harper, who is addicted to Valium and suffers anxiety and hallucinations, does not want to move to Washington. The two couples' fates quickly become intertwined: Joe stumbles upon Louis crying in the bathroom of the courthouse where he works, and they strike up an unlikely friendship based in part on Louis's suspicion that Joe is gay. Harper and Prior also meet, in a fantastical mutual dream sequence in which Prior, operating on the "threshold of revelation," reveals to Harper that her husband is a closeted homosexual. Harper confronts Joe, who denies it but says he has struggled inwardly with the issue. Roy receives a different kind of surprise: At an appointment with his doctor Henry, he learns that he too has been diagnosed with AIDS. But Roy, who considers gay men weak and ineffectual, thunders that he has nothing in common with them-AIDS is a disease of homosexuals, whereas he has "liver cancer." Henry, disgusted, as he urges him to use his clout to obtain an experimental AIDS drug. Later back on earth, his fever broken, Prior tells Louis he loves him but that he cannot come back for him. Harper leaves Joe for the last time and sets off on an optimistic voyage to San Francisco to begin her own life. Prior says that the disease has killed many but that he intends to live on, and that the "Great Work" will continue.
http://www.sparknotes.com/drama/angels/summary.html
-Brief Bio of the Author- Tony Kushner was born in Manhattan, New York in July 16, 1956, where he would later move to Louisiana. He settled and grew up in Lake Charles, Louisiana where his family moved after inheriting a lumber business. He earned a bachelors degree from Columbia University and later did postgraduate work at New York University. In the early 1980s, he founded a theater group and began writing and producing plays. In the early 1990s, he scored a monster hit with the epic, seven-hour, two-part, Broadway blockbuster Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes which earned for Kushner a Pulitzer Prize, two Tony Awards, two Drama Desk Awards, the Evening Standard Award, two Olivier Award Nominations, the New York Critics Circle Award, the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award and the LAMBDA Liberty Award for Drama. His work has been produced and seen at the Mark Taper Forum, the New York Shakespeare Festival, New York Theatre Workshop, Hartford Stage Company, Berkeley Repertory Theatre and the Los Angeles Theatre Center as well as theatres in over 30 countries across the globe. He was the recipient of a 1990 Whiting Foundation Writers Award and playwriting and directing fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. Mr. Kushner is currently a faculty member of New York University's Dramatic Writing program.
Click Here
A look of the Characters
Louis Ironson - Male, Jewish, in his mid 20s to thirties A "word processor" who works at the federal appeals court in Brooklyn. Louis embodies all the stereotypes of the neurotic Jew: anxious, ambivalent and perpetually guilty.
Prior Walter - Male, White, in his 30s. The boyfriend Louis abandons after Prior reveals that he has AIDS. Prior becomes a prophet when he is visited by an Angel of God, but he eventually rejects his prophecy and demands a blessing of additional life.
Joe Pitt - Male, in his 30s A Mormon, Republican lawyer at the appeals court, Joe grapples with his latent homosexuality, leaving his wife Harper for Louis and being left in turn by Louis.
Harper Pitt - Female, white, in her thirties Joe's wife, a Valium-addicted agoraphobe trapped in a failing marriage who hallucinates and invents imaginary characters to escape her troubles. The perpetually fearful Harper obsesses about knife-wielding men and the ozone layer as a subconscious stand-in for her own difficulties.
Roy Cohn - Male in his 50s, A famous New York lawyer and powerbroker, Roy Cohn was a real-life figure whom Kushner adapted for his play. Roy is the play's most vicious and disturbing character, a closeted homosexual who disavows other gays and cares only about amassing clout. His lack of ethics led him to illegally intervene in the espionage trial of Ethel Rosenberg, which resulted in her execution. Roy represents the opposite of community, the selfishness and loneliness all too endemic to American life. However, his malevolence goes beyond mere isolation to actual hatred and evil. He is forgiven (though not exonerated) in the play's moral climax, after his death (from AIDS) unwittingly reconnects him to the gay community from which he always distanced himself.
Belize - Male, A black ex-drag queen and registered nurse, Belize is Prior's best friend and-quite against Belize's will-Roy's caretaker. He is the most ethical and reasonable character in the play, generously looking out for Prior, grappling with Roy and rebutting Louis's blindly self-centered politics.
Hannah Pitt - Female, Joe's mother, who moves from Salt Lake City to New York after Joe confesses he is gay in a late-night phone call. Hannah tends sternly to Harper but blossoms after she encounters Prior, becoming his companion and friend. Her chilly demeanor is melted by Prior and by a remarkable sexual encounter with the Angel.
The Angel of America - Female, An imposing, terrifying, divine presence who descends from Heaven to bestow prophecy on Prior. The Angel seeks a prophet to overturn the migratory impulse of human beings, believing that their constant motion and change have driven God to abandon creation. Her cosmology is disturbingly reactionary, even deadly, and Prior successfully resists it in a visit to Heaven. This reactionary nature is rather surprisingly blended with a dramatic, Whitman-esque speaking style and an overpowering, multigendered sexuality.
Ethel Rosenberg - Female, A real-life Jewish woman who was executed for treason during the McCarthy era. The Ethel of the play returns as a ghost to take satisfaction in the death of her persecutor, Roy. Ethel hates Roy with a "needlesharp" passion, yet on his deathbed she musters enough compassion to sing to him
Mr. Lies - Male, A travel agent who resembles a jazz musician, Mr. Lies is one of Harper's imaginary creations.
Henry - Female, Roy's doctor, whom Roy threatens with destruction lest he refer to him as a homosexual.
Emily - Female, A nurse who attends to Prior in the hospital. Emily is one of several characters who give voice to the same anti-migratory impulse as the Angel, she tells Prior in no uncertain terms to stay put.
Martin Heller - Male, A Justice Department official and political ally of Roy's. Martin is fundamentally spineless, allowing Roy to manipulate him in order to impress Joe and then taking the abuse that Roy heaps on him along with a blackmail threat.
Sister Ella Chapter - Female, A real estate agent who handles the sale of Hannah's house in Salt Lake. Like Emily, she urges her friend to settle down and remain at home
Prior I and Prior II - Males, Prior's ancestors who are summoned from the dead to help prepare the way for the Angel's arrival. Prior I is a medieval farmer, Prior II a seventeenth- century Londoner who is more sophisticated and cosmopolitan in outlook. Both men died of the plague.
Rabbi Isidor Chemelwitz- Female, an orthodox Jewish rabbi.
Click Here
-The story turns on October-November 1985-January 1986 in New York City. Also events in Salt Lake City, Moscow, Russia. Being in a airliner flying to San Francisco, along with others being Heaven, Hell, dream sequences and places imagined by the characters. focuses on the stories of two troubled couples, one gay, one straight: "word processor" Louis Ironson terms and his lover Prior Walter and Mormon lawyer Joe Pitt and his wife Harper. After the funeral of Louis's grandmother, Prior tells him that he has contracted AIDS, and Louis panics. He tries to care for Prior but soon realizes he cannot stand the strain and fear. Meanwhile, Joe is offered a job in the Justice Department by Roy Cohn: his right-wing, bigoted mentor and friend. But the trouble is Harper, who is addicted to Valium and suffers anxiety and hallucinations, does not want to move to Washington. The two couples' fates quickly become intertwined: Joe stumbles upon Louis crying in the bathroom of the courthouse where he works, and they strike up an unlikely friendship based in part on Louis's suspicion that Joe is gay. Harper and Prior also meet, in a fantastical mutual dream sequence in which Prior, operating on the "threshold of revelation," reveals to Harper that her husband is a closeted homosexual. Harper confronts Joe, who denies it but says he has struggled inwardly with the issue. Roy receives a different kind of surprise: At an appointment with his doctor Henry, he learns that he too has been diagnosed with AIDS. But Roy, who considers gay men weak and ineffectual, thunders that he has nothing in common with them-AIDS is a disease of homosexuals, whereas he has "liver cancer." Henry, disgusted, as he urges him to use his clout to obtain an experimental AIDS drug. Later back on earth, his fever broken, Prior tells Louis he loves him but that he cannot come back for him. Harper leaves Joe for the last time and sets off on an optimistic voyage to San Francisco to begin her own life. Prior says that the disease has killed many but that he intends to live on, and that the "Great Work" will continue.
http://www.sparknotes.com/drama/angels/summary.html
-Brief Bio of the Author- Tony Kushner was born in Manhattan, New York in July 16, 1956, where he would later move to Louisiana. He settled and grew up in Lake Charles, Louisiana where his family moved after inheriting a lumber business. He earned a bachelors degree from Columbia University and later did postgraduate work at New York University. In the early 1980s, he founded a theater group and began writing and producing plays. In the early 1990s, he scored a monster hit with the epic, seven-hour, two-part, Broadway blockbuster Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes which earned for Kushner a Pulitzer Prize, two Tony Awards, two Drama Desk Awards, the Evening Standard Award, two Olivier Award Nominations, the New York Critics Circle Award, the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award and the LAMBDA Liberty Award for Drama. His work has been produced and seen at the Mark Taper Forum, the New York Shakespeare Festival, New York Theatre Workshop, Hartford Stage Company, Berkeley Repertory Theatre and the Los Angeles Theatre Center as well as theatres in over 30 countries across the globe. He was the recipient of a 1990 Whiting Foundation Writers Award and playwriting and directing fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. Mr. Kushner is currently a faculty member of New York University's Dramatic Writing program.
Click Here
A look of the Characters
Louis Ironson - Male, Jewish, in his mid 20s to thirties A "word processor" who works at the federal appeals court in Brooklyn. Louis embodies all the stereotypes of the neurotic Jew: anxious, ambivalent and perpetually guilty.
Prior Walter - Male, White, in his 30s. The boyfriend Louis abandons after Prior reveals that he has AIDS. Prior becomes a prophet when he is visited by an Angel of God, but he eventually rejects his prophecy and demands a blessing of additional life.
Joe Pitt - Male, in his 30s A Mormon, Republican lawyer at the appeals court, Joe grapples with his latent homosexuality, leaving his wife Harper for Louis and being left in turn by Louis.
Harper Pitt - Female, white, in her thirties Joe's wife, a Valium-addicted agoraphobe trapped in a failing marriage who hallucinates and invents imaginary characters to escape her troubles. The perpetually fearful Harper obsesses about knife-wielding men and the ozone layer as a subconscious stand-in for her own difficulties.
Roy Cohn - Male in his 50s, A famous New York lawyer and powerbroker, Roy Cohn was a real-life figure whom Kushner adapted for his play. Roy is the play's most vicious and disturbing character, a closeted homosexual who disavows other gays and cares only about amassing clout. His lack of ethics led him to illegally intervene in the espionage trial of Ethel Rosenberg, which resulted in her execution. Roy represents the opposite of community, the selfishness and loneliness all too endemic to American life. However, his malevolence goes beyond mere isolation to actual hatred and evil. He is forgiven (though not exonerated) in the play's moral climax, after his death (from AIDS) unwittingly reconnects him to the gay community from which he always distanced himself.
Belize - Male, A black ex-drag queen and registered nurse, Belize is Prior's best friend and-quite against Belize's will-Roy's caretaker. He is the most ethical and reasonable character in the play, generously looking out for Prior, grappling with Roy and rebutting Louis's blindly self-centered politics.
Hannah Pitt - Female, Joe's mother, who moves from Salt Lake City to New York after Joe confesses he is gay in a late-night phone call. Hannah tends sternly to Harper but blossoms after she encounters Prior, becoming his companion and friend. Her chilly demeanor is melted by Prior and by a remarkable sexual encounter with the Angel.
The Angel of America - Female, An imposing, terrifying, divine presence who descends from Heaven to bestow prophecy on Prior. The Angel seeks a prophet to overturn the migratory impulse of human beings, believing that their constant motion and change have driven God to abandon creation. Her cosmology is disturbingly reactionary, even deadly, and Prior successfully resists it in a visit to Heaven. This reactionary nature is rather surprisingly blended with a dramatic, Whitman-esque speaking style and an overpowering, multigendered sexuality.
Ethel Rosenberg - Female, A real-life Jewish woman who was executed for treason during the McCarthy era. The Ethel of the play returns as a ghost to take satisfaction in the death of her persecutor, Roy. Ethel hates Roy with a "needlesharp" passion, yet on his deathbed she musters enough compassion to sing to him
Mr. Lies - Male, A travel agent who resembles a jazz musician, Mr. Lies is one of Harper's imaginary creations.
Henry - Female, Roy's doctor, whom Roy threatens with destruction lest he refer to him as a homosexual.
Emily - Female, A nurse who attends to Prior in the hospital. Emily is one of several characters who give voice to the same anti-migratory impulse as the Angel, she tells Prior in no uncertain terms to stay put.
Martin Heller - Male, A Justice Department official and political ally of Roy's. Martin is fundamentally spineless, allowing Roy to manipulate him in order to impress Joe and then taking the abuse that Roy heaps on him along with a blackmail threat.
Sister Ella Chapter - Female, A real estate agent who handles the sale of Hannah's house in Salt Lake. Like Emily, she urges her friend to settle down and remain at home
Prior I and Prior II - Males, Prior's ancestors who are summoned from the dead to help prepare the way for the Angel's arrival. Prior I is a medieval farmer, Prior II a seventeenth- century Londoner who is more sophisticated and cosmopolitan in outlook. Both men died of the plague.
Rabbi Isidor Chemelwitz- Female, an orthodox Jewish rabbi.
Click Here
Educator's Learning Guide
-Angels in America was first workshopped in 1990, but would open at Eureka Theatre Company in May of 1991, where it would still continue today where in 2003 it appeared as a film on HBO directed by Mike Nichols carrying a cast of Al Pacino
Meryl Streep, Emma Thompson, Mary-Louise Parker, Jeffrey Wright starting in the film. It would be nominated for Emmy and Golden Globe awards, where it would win 11 of the 21 nominations breaking the record held by "Roots".
"Embracing All Possibilities in Art and Life" by Frank Rich May 1993
But even as Mr. Kushner portrays an America of lies and cowardice to match Cohn's cynical view, he envisions another America of truth and beauty, the paradise imagined by both his Jewish and Mormon characters' ancestors as they made their crossing to the new land. "Angels in America" not only charts the split of its two central couples but it also implicitly sets its two gay men with AIDS against each other in a battle over their visions of the future. While the fatalistic, self-loathing Cohn ridicules gay men as political weaklings with "zero clout" doomed to defeat, the younger, equally ill Prior sees the reverse. "I am a gay man, and I am used to pressure," he says from his sick bed. "I am tough and strong." Possessed by scriptural visions he describes as "very Steven Spielberg" even when in abject pain, Prior is Mr. Kushner's prophet of hope in the midst of apocalypse.
What has really affected "Angels in America" during the months of its odyssey to New York, however, is not so much its change of directors as Washington's change of Administrations. When first seen a year or so ago, the play seemed defined by its anger at the reigning political establishment, which tended to reward the Roy Cohns and ignore the Prior Walters. Mr. Kushner has not revised the text since -- a crony of Cohn's still boasts of a Republican lock on the White House until the year 2000 -- but the shift in Washington has had the subliminal effect of making "Angels in America" seem more focused on what happens next than on the past.
Click Here
“Marching Out Of The Closet” by Frank Rich November of 1992
As a political statement, "Angels in America," a two-part, seven-hour epic subtitled "A Gay Fantasia on National Themes," is nothing less than a fierce call for gay Americans to seize the strings of power in the war for tolerance and against AIDS. But this play, by turns searing and comic and elegiac, is no earthbound ideological harangue. Though set largely in New York and Washington during the Reagan-Bush 80's, "Angels in America" sweeps through locales as varied as Salt Lake City and the Kremlin, and through high-flying styles ranging from piquant camp humor to religious hallucination to the ornate poetic rage of classic drama.
When the going gets truly heavy in Part 2, Mr. Kushner must share responsibility. The writing retreats to conventionality as he sorts out the domestic conflicts of his major characters. Long debates about the Reagan ethos and the hypocrisies of gay Republicans seem unexceptional after this year's Presidential campaign. But just when "Angels in America" seems to bog down in the naturalism and polemics Mr. Kushner otherwise avoids, it gathers itself up for a stirring cosmic denouement in which Mr. Spinella's Prior, having passed through a spiritual heaven and five years of physical hell, addresses the audience directly from the Bethesda Fountain in Central Park. Envisioning a new age of universal perestroika in which "the world only spins forward," Prior foretells a future in which "this disease will be the end of many of us, but not nearly all," in which "we will not die secret deaths anymore," in which love and "more life" will be the destiny of "each and every one."
ClicK Here
Past Productions
Mark Taper Forum
Los Angeles, CA October 1992
Director: Oskar Eustis and Tony Taccone
Sets: John Conklin, Lights: Pat Collins, Costumes: Gabriel Berry, and music by Mel Marvin
Walter Kerr Theatre
New York City, NY April 1993
Director: George C. Wolfe
Sets: Robin Wagner, Lights: Julie Fisher, Costumes: Toni-Leslie James
Boston Works Theater
Boston, MA Jan 18 - Feb 10, 2008
Director: Jason Southerland and Nancy Curran Willis
Citizens' Theatre
Glasgow, UK May 1- 2, 2007
Director: David Kramer
Sets: Soutra Gilmour; Costumes: Mark Bouman; Lighting: Charles Balfour; Sound, Carolyn Downing
The Hypocrities, Bailiwick Repertory Theatre
Chicago, IL Through May 7, 2008 with Part II on April 8, 2008
Director: Sean Graney
Lights: Jared Moore, Designed: Michael Griggs & Mikhail Fiksel
Meryl Streep, Emma Thompson, Mary-Louise Parker, Jeffrey Wright starting in the film. It would be nominated for Emmy and Golden Globe awards, where it would win 11 of the 21 nominations breaking the record held by "Roots".
"Embracing All Possibilities in Art and Life" by Frank Rich May 1993
But even as Mr. Kushner portrays an America of lies and cowardice to match Cohn's cynical view, he envisions another America of truth and beauty, the paradise imagined by both his Jewish and Mormon characters' ancestors as they made their crossing to the new land. "Angels in America" not only charts the split of its two central couples but it also implicitly sets its two gay men with AIDS against each other in a battle over their visions of the future. While the fatalistic, self-loathing Cohn ridicules gay men as political weaklings with "zero clout" doomed to defeat, the younger, equally ill Prior sees the reverse. "I am a gay man, and I am used to pressure," he says from his sick bed. "I am tough and strong." Possessed by scriptural visions he describes as "very Steven Spielberg" even when in abject pain, Prior is Mr. Kushner's prophet of hope in the midst of apocalypse.
What has really affected "Angels in America" during the months of its odyssey to New York, however, is not so much its change of directors as Washington's change of Administrations. When first seen a year or so ago, the play seemed defined by its anger at the reigning political establishment, which tended to reward the Roy Cohns and ignore the Prior Walters. Mr. Kushner has not revised the text since -- a crony of Cohn's still boasts of a Republican lock on the White House until the year 2000 -- but the shift in Washington has had the subliminal effect of making "Angels in America" seem more focused on what happens next than on the past.
Click Here
“Marching Out Of The Closet” by Frank Rich November of 1992
As a political statement, "Angels in America," a two-part, seven-hour epic subtitled "A Gay Fantasia on National Themes," is nothing less than a fierce call for gay Americans to seize the strings of power in the war for tolerance and against AIDS. But this play, by turns searing and comic and elegiac, is no earthbound ideological harangue. Though set largely in New York and Washington during the Reagan-Bush 80's, "Angels in America" sweeps through locales as varied as Salt Lake City and the Kremlin, and through high-flying styles ranging from piquant camp humor to religious hallucination to the ornate poetic rage of classic drama.
When the going gets truly heavy in Part 2, Mr. Kushner must share responsibility. The writing retreats to conventionality as he sorts out the domestic conflicts of his major characters. Long debates about the Reagan ethos and the hypocrisies of gay Republicans seem unexceptional after this year's Presidential campaign. But just when "Angels in America" seems to bog down in the naturalism and polemics Mr. Kushner otherwise avoids, it gathers itself up for a stirring cosmic denouement in which Mr. Spinella's Prior, having passed through a spiritual heaven and five years of physical hell, addresses the audience directly from the Bethesda Fountain in Central Park. Envisioning a new age of universal perestroika in which "the world only spins forward," Prior foretells a future in which "this disease will be the end of many of us, but not nearly all," in which "we will not die secret deaths anymore," in which love and "more life" will be the destiny of "each and every one."
ClicK Here
Past Productions
Mark Taper Forum
Los Angeles, CA October 1992
Director: Oskar Eustis and Tony Taccone
Sets: John Conklin, Lights: Pat Collins, Costumes: Gabriel Berry, and music by Mel Marvin
Walter Kerr Theatre
New York City, NY April 1993
Director: George C. Wolfe
Sets: Robin Wagner, Lights: Julie Fisher, Costumes: Toni-Leslie James
Boston Works Theater
Boston, MA Jan 18 - Feb 10, 2008
Director: Jason Southerland and Nancy Curran Willis
Citizens' Theatre
Glasgow, UK May 1- 2, 2007
Director: David Kramer
Sets: Soutra Gilmour; Costumes: Mark Bouman; Lighting: Charles Balfour; Sound, Carolyn Downing
The Hypocrities, Bailiwick Repertory Theatre
Chicago, IL Through May 7, 2008 with Part II on April 8, 2008
Director: Sean Graney
Lights: Jared Moore, Designed: Michael Griggs & Mikhail Fiksel
Educator's Learning Guide
- Questions for the director
1) What are the themes that the script are you trying to speard to?
2) What type of music should be used for the production?
3) Are you setting it like the 1980s?
4) What type of clothing should be used?
5) Will there be violence, nudity, or drugs?
After the production that will be time for questioning and hearing answers from the director and actors, whom were involved in the show. There will be common questions and also questions about how they felt about the show and was it diffcult of acting and moving lie the character.
1. What was your impression of seeing the set and acting in the production?
2. Was it difficult to produce the 1980s as on stage?.
3. Was the nudity, homosexuality, and smoking a concern for the stage and audience?
4. What was the decision of the sex scene at the park?
5. What gets the name Angels In America for the production?
These questions are for the students to ask and view about the production. The exercise for the students to understand the play. They are answer it with the correct answer to see if they understand what Tony Kushner is discussing.
1. Who was Roy Cohn and What was he famous for?
2. In the play, they explain alot about AIDS and Kaposi's sarcoma, what is the difference between both of them?
3. Mormonism and Judaism are the religions that are mention in the play, how is it affected in the play?
4. Who was the famous actor that got the people's attention to understand that AIDS is dangerous?
5. How is homosexuality viewed in the play? Who is the character that isn't sure if he's gay or not?
1) What are the themes that the script are you trying to speard to?
2) What type of music should be used for the production?
3) Are you setting it like the 1980s?
4) What type of clothing should be used?
5) Will there be violence, nudity, or drugs?
After the production that will be time for questioning and hearing answers from the director and actors, whom were involved in the show. There will be common questions and also questions about how they felt about the show and was it diffcult of acting and moving lie the character.
1. What was your impression of seeing the set and acting in the production?
2. Was it difficult to produce the 1980s as on stage?.
3. Was the nudity, homosexuality, and smoking a concern for the stage and audience?
4. What was the decision of the sex scene at the park?
5. What gets the name Angels In America for the production?
These questions are for the students to ask and view about the production. The exercise for the students to understand the play. They are answer it with the correct answer to see if they understand what Tony Kushner is discussing.
1. Who was Roy Cohn and What was he famous for?
2. In the play, they explain alot about AIDS and Kaposi's sarcoma, what is the difference between both of them?
3. Mormonism and Judaism are the religions that are mention in the play, how is it affected in the play?
4. Who was the famous actor that got the people's attention to understand that AIDS is dangerous?
5. How is homosexuality viewed in the play? Who is the character that isn't sure if he's gay or not?
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Productions Designs
Guilford College
2001
Directed by Jack Zerbe and Lee Soroko
Costume Designer ~ April Soroko
Set Designer ~ April Soroko
Lighting Designer ~ Bob Elderkin
Photographer ~ Bob Elderkin
The site also provides designs of each of the character's costumes from Part 1 and 2.
Click Here
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Amherst, MA
April 7-16 2005 in Rand Theatre
Director: MFA student M. Honatke Miller
Designer: Miguel Romero
Click Here
Angels in America, Part I: Millennium Approaches"
University of Pennsylvania Theatre Arts Department, Studio Theatre, 2007
Direction: David Fox
Scenic Design / Painting: Rita DeAngelo
Scenic Consultant: Peter Whinnery
Click Here
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)