Last semester’s talk with playwright Tony Kushner is happening this Friday:
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner, hailed as “the most highly acclaimedplaywright of his generation” by Salon.com, participates in a conversation about his wide-ranging and controversial body of work. Kushner is best known for his two-part epic, Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes. He also wrote the screenplays for Mike Nichols’ film of Angels in America and Steven Spielberg’s Munich.
Tackling the most difficult subjects in contemporary history, Kushner rejects ideology in favor of what he calls a “dialectically shaped truth” which, in his view, must be outrageously funny, absolutely agonizing and move society’s views forward. He gives voice to characters that have been rendered powerless by the forces of circumstances–a drag queen dying of AIDS, an uneducated Southern maid, contemporary Afghans–and his attempt to see all sides of their predicament has a sly subversiveness.
Kushner will be interviewed by his long-time collaborator Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director of the Public Theater.
Date: Friday, January 23rd
Time: 8 pm
Place: Memorial Chapel