Dramaturgy Statement

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".