[Chronicle]

Oct. 13, 1994
Vol. 14, No. 4

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    Playwright Kushner to discuss Angels

    Tony Kushner, author of the Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning play Angels in America, will discuss the role of theater in addressing social and political issues during an exclusive Chicago speaking engagement at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 18, in Mandel Hall. Audience members can meet the playwright at a reception following the lecture.

    "Angels in America has such a strong voice in this country right now," said Charles Newell, Artistic Director of Court Theatre. "I think it's important that we, as a community interested in the arts, stop for a minute to assess not only what Tony is saying in Angels but also how influential a form of communication theater can be."

    Kushner is a graduate of Columbia University and of New York University's graduate theater program, where he concentrated in directing. He was commissioned by San Francisco's Eureka Theatre Company to write Angels in America, which is presented in two parts: "Millennium Approaches" and "Perestroika." The play has been described by Chicago Tribune critic Richard Christiansen as "an eloquent attempt to place the crisis of AIDS as the focal point of a historic turning point: America's impending entry into the new century." Kushner has said that the intent of Angels is to redefine American history, placing more emphasis on the plurality of this country.

    In addition to two Tony Awards and the Pulitzer Prize, Kushner has won the Drama Desk Award and London's Drama Critic's Award. Angels in America, now on stage at Chicago's Royal George Theatre, has been critically acclaimed to be the most ambitious American play of our time.

    "It may not be too early to say that just as Samuel Beckett was the key dramatist of the mid-20th century, so Tony Kushner is the great theater prophet of the close of our century," Christiansen wrote.

    Tickets for "An Evening With Tony Kushner" are $15 for the lecture ($10 for students and artists) or $35 for the lecture and reception. For tickets and more information, call the Court Theatre box office at 753-4472.