THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 9, 1996 TAG: 9610090034
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TERESA ANNAS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 151 lines
TO FLY to a city, and not watch a production of your own play being mounted at that time: What's with this Tony Kushner?
Kushner wrote ``Angels in America: Millenium Approaches,'' which opens Friday at Old Dominion University Theater and continues through Oct. 26. The show coincides with the ODU Literary Festival, which features a reading by Kushner at 8 p.m. Thursday.
Paired with part two of ``Angels in America'' - titled ``Perestroika'' - the drama won him the 1993 Pulitzer Prize.
While in Norfolk, Kushner also will take part in a panel discussion on censorship at 1:30 p.m. Friday. And, on Friday evening, he'll sign copies of his ``Angels'' script at the theater entrance.
Just don't expect him to slip inside.
``I have seen thousands of performances of this play. Just thousands,'' said Kushner, speaking from his home in Manhattan.
``I started writing the play in 1988. The first productions were in 1990. I finished `Perestroika' in 1992. It went to Broadway in 1993. National tour was '94-'95. And I finished writing the screenplays in '95 and '96.
``So. I really spent eight years with this play. And I really can't sit through it any more. I think it's incredibly important for me, as a writer, to try and get it out of my head.''
Kushner didn't sound peeved, just clear about his needs. Apparently, for the writers of this world, there are so many forces out there conspiring to divert them from their real work. Lately, he's sworn off appearances.
``It's easier to fly around and give speeches than it is to sit alone in your room and write.''
He had just returned from England where he spent six weeks writing in a 1617 stone cottage near Manchester - the setting for the first play in a planned trilogy. Titled ``Henry Box Brown,'' a workshop production of this much-awaited encore epic is scheduled for London in May, he said.
The story is based on a real person - Brown, a Virginia slave who had himself shipped in the mid-19th century to Philadelphia. In 1857, Brown and other former slaves moved to England, where they formed a touring troupe. In their panorama production, they acted out the horrors of their previous lives on the cotton plantations of the American South.
Like ``Angels,'' it's a story that imparts Kushner's vision of the world - especially, the corrupt machinations of politics - through compelling storytelling. ``Angels'' also utilizes a real life character - Roy Cohn, a closeted homosexual who was a powerful attorney, and a counsel to Sen. Joseph McCarthy.
Kushner is very politically aware, and takes his activism seriously. Besides gay rights, he's concerned about such global issues as the destruction of the ozone layer, nuclear proliferation and poverty.
``Anyone who doesn't become active right now,'' he said, ``is culpable in the destruction of life on this planet.''
Line for line, ``Angels'' is jam-packed with reality. Kushner incorporated a gay couple, and a pickup sex scene on a park bench. There's a closeted gay Mormon who is wrestling with his true nature, and his frustrated, Valium-addicted wife.
Kushner's masterpiece has a subtitle: ``A Gay Fantasia on National Themes.'' Six of the 21 characters are gay.
In one scene, a main character - Prior Walter, who is dying of AIDS - briefly stands on stage nude, as a nurse inspects his lesions.
Kushner's use of language is rich, witty, poetic - and sometimes rough.
Given all that, the playwright said he actually has been surprised at the lack of protest regarding productions across the nation. ``That's sort of shocking to me. It didn't get any criticism on Broadway. It got none in London. The national tour went everywhere, and nothing happened.
``Some people have objected to its politics, and to the language. But, it has been an immensely successful play.''
The first significant challenge came in March at the Charlotte (N.C.) Repertory Theater, where some 15 picketers ired by the nudity were met by 50 counter-protesters defending freedom of speech.
``I went to Charlotte,'' Kushner said. ``I actually had agreed to go before this happened. And they did a very nice production of it.'' Leading the protest, he said, was ``this crazy minister who thinks `The Lion King' is teaching children voodoo. His own church had fired him.''
More recently, Catholic University officials censored a graduate student production of ``Angels in America.'' When the Washington, D.C., school gave the students several restrictive options, they chose to rent the nearby Arena Stage, a notably adventurous playhouse.
So, Catholic U's production of ``Angels'' - which opens Thursday - will be mounted concurrently with ODU's.
``Angels'' was written with the help of a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, he said. ``And I was very proud of that. I feel the reason the play became `A Gay Fantasia on National Themes' was, in part, because I felt I was being paid by the American people to write it.
``And I was very moved by that.'' He expected the radical right to exploit the NEA angle. ``And they didn't. Probably because it was too successful.''
What few complaints he's heard focused on the nudity, or on the f-word.
Kushner thinks that people actually are disturbed that ``the play is unapologetically pro-gay. And, part of the success of the play has to do with the change of cultural norms. There is, more and more, a widespread acceptance of homosexuality as being part of the human experience.
``And if they don't get it, they're dinosaurs,'' he said.
``What I really hate is the pretense that this has to do with community standards. What it really has to do with is bigotry, and homophobia.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Tony Kushner will do a reading and a panel discussion at ODU.
Graphic
THE 19TH ANNUAL Old Dominion University Literary Festival
explores censorship. This year's festival, called ``Forbidden
Passage,'' opens Thursday and continues through Sunday.
All events are on campus and are free, unless noted. Here are the
highlights. For more information, call 683-3020 or 683-3991.
THURSDAY
Eleanor Wilner, poet, 10:30 a.m., Hampton/Newport News Room, Webb
Center.
``Stifled Voice: Cultural Ramifications of Censorship,'' a
graduate student panel, 12:30 p.m., Room 104, Batten Arts & Letters.
Brian Evenson, fiction, 3 p.m., Room 104, Batten Arts & Letters.
Denise Duhamel, master class in poetry, 4:30 p.m., Room 104,
Batten Arts & Letters.
Screening of Andrea Slane's ``Irresistible Impulse,'' 5:30 p.m.,
ODU Gallery, 765 Granby St., Norfolk.
A prose reading by Tony Kushner, Pulitzer Prize-winning
playwright, 8:15 p.m., Room 102, Mills Godwin Building. Admission:
$12, $2 for students.
Informal Pub readings, guest and student writers, 11:30 p.m.,
Taphouse Grill, 931 W. 21st St., Norfolk.
FRIDAY
Achy Obejas, fiction, 10:30 a.m., Chandler Recital Hall, Diehn
Fine and Performing Arts.
``Writing Past Censors: Private and Public,'' with Wilner,
Obejas, Kushner, Evenson. Michael Pearson moderates. 1:30 p.m.,
Chandler Recital Hall.
Denise Duhamel, poet, 4:30 p.m., Chandler Recital Hall.
``Rated R: A Short History of Hollywood Censorship,'' Andrea
Slane, 5:30 p.m., Chandler Recital Hall.
Jessica Hagedorn, a fiction reading by a performance
artist/poet/playwright, 8:15 p.m., Chandler Recital Hall. Admission:
$12, $2 for students.
SATURDAY
Anthony Vigil, poet/activist, 10:30 a.m., Chandler Recital Hall.
``The Poetics of Revolution: Fighting America's Invisible
Censors,'' with Duhamel, Hagedorn, Jordan, Vigil; Tim Seibles
moderates, 1:30 p.m., Chandler Recital Hall.
Ben Marcus, fiction, 4:30 p.m., Chandler Recital Hall.
Screening of ``Irresistible Impulse,'' 5:30 p.m., ODU Gallery.
June Jordan, poet, 8:15 p.m., Chandler Recital Hall. Admission:
$12, $2 for students.
Reception and closing celebration, 10 p.m., ODU Gallery.
Informal Pub readings, 11:30 p.m., Taphouse Grill.
SUNDAY
Special performance of Tony Kushner's ``Angels in America:
Millenium Approaches,'' 2 p.m., ODU University Theater, 4600 Hampton
Blvd. $5-$8. Call 683-5305.
- Teresa Annas
KEYWORDS: PROFILE BIOGRAPHY PLAYWRIGHT
THEATER by CNB