Tony Kushner Biography

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TONY KUSHNER (Screenplay by) intends his plays to be part of a greater political movement; his work is concerned with moral responsibility during politically repressive times. Kushner has a way of bringing the lofty into the sphere of the approachable by creating everyday characters who collide both comically and tragically on stage. The gay, Jewish socialist raised in Louisiana and educated at Columbia and NYU most enjoys addressing audiences that are receptive to ideas for change and progress.

In his speaking engagements and lectures, Kushner talks about weighty philosophical and political topics-without being didactic or patronizing. And because he genuinely respects the intelligence of both his students and his audience, it's truly rousing to hear Kushner speak about timeless matters such as faith, death, and life.

Kushner's seven-hour, two-part, Broadway production of Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes is a masterful epic-it has received 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 Literary Award for Drama.

In 1998, London's National Theatre selected Angels in America as one of the ten best plays of the 20th century. About Angels in America, Newsweek magazine wrote, “The entire work is the broadest, deepest, most searching American play of our time.” The 2003 HBO television version of this play was directed by Mike Nichols and featured actors Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, and Emma Thompson.

Tony Kushner's plays include A Bright Room Called Day; Angels In America, Parts One and Two; Slavs!; Homebody / Kabul; and Caroline, or Change, a musical with composer Jeanine Tesori. He has written adaptations of Corneille's The Illusion, S.Y. Ansky's The Dybbuk, and Brecht's The Good Person of Sezuan; as well as English-language libretti for the operas Brundibar by Hans Krasa, and The Comedy on the Bridge by Bohuslav Martinu. He wrote the screenplay for the Mike Nichols' film of Angels In America. Recent books include Brundibar, with illustrations by Maurice Sendak; The Art of Maurice Sendak, 1980 to the Present; and Wrestling With Zion: Progressive Jewish-American Responses to the Palestinian/Israeli Conflict, co-edited with Alisa Solomon.

Mr. Kushner is the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize, an Emmy Award, two Tony Awards, three Obie Awards, the Evening Standard Award, a Whiting Writer's Fellowship, an Arts Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the PEN/Laura Pels Award for a Mid-Career Playwright, a Spirit of Justice Award from the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, and a Cultural Achievement Award from The National Foundation for Jewish Culture, among many others. In 1998, London's National Theatre selected Angels in America as one of the ten best plays of the 20th century.

Tony Kushner's recent projects include the play Henry Box Brown or the Mirror of Slavery; two musical plays, St. Cecilia or The Power of Music and Caroline or Change; and the incredibly prescient Homebody/Kabul. In late 2003, Kushner published a picture book entitled Brundibar, based on the American version of the opera of the same name, which he crafted with author and illustrator Maurice Sendak. He also wrote the text for a new survey book of Sendak's illustrations and stage designs entitled The Art of Maurice Sendak: 1980 to the Present.

Addressing current political topics in his two most recent works, Kushner edited Wrestling with Zion: Progressive Jewish-American Responses to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, and wrote Save Your Democratic Soul!: Rants, Screeds, and Other Public Utterances.