Tony Kushner Overview

Growing up white, Jewish, and homosexual in the turbulent South of the '60s does not lay the groundwork for a complacent life. Finding himself a one-man experiment in the limits of tolerance, Kushner has used theater to explore issues of prejudice... [more]

Growing up white, Jewish, and homosexual in the turbulent South of the '60s does not lay the groundwork for a complacent life. Finding himself a one-man experiment in the limits of tolerance, Kushner has used theater to explore issues of prejudice and community. His plays shed special light on the politics of sexuality, a topic Kushner has examined from many angles in his personal life -- only after a failed attempt to use psychoanalysis to cure himself of homosexuality did Kushner embrace his own sexual identity. Kushner's first play, "A Bright Room Called Day," took time to catch on; it suffered through two mediocre productions before finally finding success in San Francisco under the artistic directorship of Oskar Eustis. Eustis was so taken with Kushner's work that he commissioned what was to become Kushner's major breakthrough, "Angels in America." Subtitled "A Gay Fantasia on National Themes," the exceptionally long (six hours plus) play deals with AIDS, Mormonism, and the bizarre life of Roy Cohn, a powerful gay attorney who collaborated with Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s persecution of so-called un-Americans. A tremendous hit, many consider "Angels in America" to be one of the most important plays of the twentieth century. [show less]