Tony Kushner Totally Explained

Everything about Tony Kushner totally explained

Tony Kushner (born July 16, 1956) is an award-winning American playwright most famous for his play Angels in America, for which he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. He is also co-author, along with Eric Roth, of the screenplay of the 2005 film Munich, which was directed by Steven Spielberg and earned Kushner (along with Roth) an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Biography

He was born to a Jewish family in Manhattan. His parents, William Kushner and Sylvia (Deutscher) Kushner, both classically trained musicians, moved to Lake Charles, Louisiana, the seat of Calcasieu Parish, shortly after his birth. During high school Kushner had a reputation in policy debate, at one point going to a camp, and making it to the final rounds. Kushner moved to New York in 1974 to begin his undergraduate college education at Columbia University, where he completed a B.A. in Medieval Studies in 1978. He studied directing at New York University's Graduate School, from which he was graduated in 1984. During graduate school, he spent the summers of 1978-1981 directing both early original works (Masque of Owls and Incidents and Occurrences During the Travels of the Tailor Max) and Shakespearean plays (A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Tempest) for the children attending the Governor's Program for Gifted Children (GPGC) in his home town of Lake Charles, Louisiana. In 2008, he received a Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters from SUNY Purchase College. His commencement speech is available on the SUNY Purchase website

. Angels in America is a play in two parts. The first part is entitled Millennium Approaches, and the second is entitled Perestroika. Kushner's other plays include Hydriotaphia, Slavs!: Thinking About the Longstanding Problems of Virtue and Happiness, A Bright Room Called Day, Homebody/Kabul, and the book for the musical Caroline, or Change. His new translation of Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children was performed at the Delacorte Theater in the summer of 2006 starring Meryl Streep and directed by George C. Wolfe. Kushner has also adapted S. Ansky's play The Dybbuk.
   In April 2003 Kushner and his long-time partner, Entertainment Weekly editor Mark Harris, had a wedding ceremony in New York.
   In January 2006, a documentary feature about Kushner entitled Wrestling With Angels debuted at the Sundance Film Festival. The film was directed by Freida Lee Mock.
   Kushner's plays are published by T C G and Broadway Play Publishing Inc.

Controversy over views on Israel and Zionism

In an interview with the Jewish Independent, Kushner insisted that "I want the state of Israel to continue to exist. I've always said that. I've never said anything else. My positions have been lied about and misrepresented in so many ways. People claim that I'm for a one-state solution, which isn't true." However, he later stated that he hopes that "there might be a merging of the two countries because [they're] geographically kind of ridiculous looking on a map," although he acknowledged that political realities make this unlikely in the near future.
Kushner's criticism of Israeli treatment of Palestinians and of the increase in religious extremism within Israeli politics and culture has created some controversy in the Jewish community, including some opposition to his receiving an honorary doctorate at the 2006 commencement of Brandeis University. The Zionist Organization of America unsuccessfully lobbied for the university to rescind its invitation to Kushner. In the course of the controversy, quotes critical of Zionism and Israel made by Kushner were circulated. Kushner said at the time that his quotes were "grossly mischaracterized." Kushner told the Jewish Advocate in an interview "All that anybody seems to be reading is a couple of right-wing Web sites taking things deliberately out of context and excluding anything that would complicate the picture by making me seem like a reasonable person, which I basically think I am."

Other statements

On the issue of Israel, Kushner has stated that:

"there's a very strong democratic tradition in Israel–a secular, pluralist, democratic tradition in Israel. I believe that there's a great deal of jurisprudence and legislative history and executive action in Israel that supports a vision of Israel as a progressive, democratic, secular, pluralist state. I don't know how you reconcile that with the notion of Israel as a Jewish state and that's always been a question that I've had about it, but I leave that to Israel to work out. I believe that there are a lot of people in Israel who absolutely want to see the country equally enfranchise its Jewish citizens and its non-Jewish citizens, its Arab citizens, and I'd hope that would be an ongoing struggle that resolves itself in the direction of pluralist, constitutional democracy; a secular, pluralist, constitutional democracy. And there's good reason to hope for that and I think that needs to be supported."
Books

A Meditation from Angels in America, HarperSan Francisco, 1994.
Thinking about the Longstanding Problems of Virtue and Happiness: Essays, a Play, Two Poems, and a Prayer, Theatre Communications Group (New York, NY), 1995.
Howard Cruse, Stuck Rubber Baby, introduction by Kushner (New York: Paradox Press, 1995).
David B. Feinberg, Queer and Loathing: Rants and Raves of a Raging AIDS Clone, introduction by Kushner (New York: Penguin, 1995).
David Wojnarowicz, The Waterfront Journals, edited by Amy Scholder, introduction by Kushner (New York: Grove, 1996).
"Three Screeds from Key West: For Larry Kramer," in We Must Love One Another or Die: The Life and Legacies of Larry Kramer, edited by Lawrence D. Mass (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997), pp. 191-199.
Moises Kaufman, Gross Indecency, afterword by Kushner (New York: Vintage, 1997), pp. 135-143.
Plays by Tony Kushner (New York: Broadway Play Publishing, 1999). Includes:

A Bright Room called Day
The Illusion
Slavs! Thinking About the Longstanding Problems of Virtue and Happiness
Death & Taxes: Hydrotaphia, and Other Plays, Theatre Communications Group (New York, NY), 2000. Includes:

Reverse transcription
Hydriotaphia: or the Death of Dr. Browne, (adaptation of Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial (A fictitious, imaginary account of Sir Thomas Browne's character not based upon fact)
G. David Schine in Hell
Notes on Akiba
Terminating
East Coast Ode to Howard Jarvis
Brundibar, illustrated by Maurice Sendak, Hyperion Books for Children, 2003.
Peter's Pixie, by Donn Kushner, illustrated by Sylvie Daigneault, introduction by Tony Kushner, Tundra Books, 2003
The Art of Maurice Sendak: 1980 to the Present, 2003
Save Your Democratic Citizen Soul!: Rants, Screeds, and Other Public Utterances
Wrestling with Zion: Progressive Jewish-American Responses to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, with Alisa Solomon, Grove, 2003.
Magazine contributions

"The Secrets of Angels," New York Times, 27 March 1994, p. H5.
"The State of the Theatre," Times Literary Supplement, 28 April 1995, p. 14.
"The Theater of Utopia," Theater, 26 (1995): 9-11.
"The Art of the Difficult," Civilization, 4 (August/September 1997): 62-67.
"Notes About Political Theater," Kenyon Review, 19 (Summer/Fall 1997): 19-34.
"Wings of Desire," Premiere, October 1997: 70.
"Fo's Last Laugh--I," Nation, 3 November 1997: 4-5.
"Matthew's Passion,"(External Link) Nation, 9 November 1998
"A Modest Proposal," American Theatre, January 1998: 20-22, 77-89.
"A Word to Graduates: Organize!," Nation, 1 July 2002.
"Only We Who Guard The Mystery Shall Be Unhappy," Nation, 24 March 2003.
Other works

La Fin de la Baleine: An Opera for the Apocalypse, (opera) 1983
St. Cecilia or The Power of Music, (opera libretto based on Heinrich von Kleist's eighteenth-century story Die heilige Cäcilie oder Die Gewalt der Musik, Eine Legende)
Brundibar, (an opera in collaboration with Maurice Sendak)
Munich, a film by Steven Spielberg (2005) - screenplay (co-written by)
Interviews

Gerard Raymond, "Q & A With Tony Kushner," Theatre Week (20-26 December 1993): 14-20.
Mark Marvel, "A Conversation with Tony Kushner," Interview, 24 (February 1994): 84.
David Savran, "Tony Kushner," in Speaking on Stage: Interviews with Contemporary American Playwrights, edited by Philip C. Kolin and Colby H. Kullman (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1996), pp. 291-313.
Robert Vorlicky, ed., Tony Kushner in Conversation (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1998).
Victor Wishna, "Tony Kushner," in In Their Company: Portraits of American Playwrights, Photographs by Ken Collins, Interviews by Victor Wishna (New York: Umbrage Editions, 2006).
Career

Governor's Program for Gifted Children, Lake Charles, LA, Drama Teacher, Director, Playwright, 1978-1981
United Nations Plaza Hotel, New York City, switchboard operator, 1979-85
St. Louis Repertory Theatre, assistant director, 1985-86
New York Theatre Workshop, artistic director, 1987-88
Theatre Communication Group, New York City, director of literary services, 1990-91
Juilliard School of Drama, New York City, playwright-in-residence, 1990-92
Guest artist at New York University Graduate Theatre Program, Yale University, and Princeton University, beginning in 1989.
Awards and nominations
Academy Award
Nominated: Best Adapted Screenplay, Munich (2005) Emmy Award
Won: Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special, Angels in America (2004) Golden Globe Award
Nominated: Best Screenplay, Munich (2005) Tony Award
Won: Best Author of a Play, (1993)
Won: Best Author of a Play, (1994)
Nominated: Best Book of a Musical, Caroline, or Change (2004)
Nominated: Best Score, Caroline, or Change (2004) Other Awards
Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Evening Standard Award
Olivier Award Winner - Best New Musical - Caroline, or Change, 2007
OBIE
New York Drama Critics Circle Award
American Academy of Arts and Letters Award
Whiting Writers Fellowship
Lila Wallace/Reader's Digest Fellowship
National Foundation of Jewish Culture, Cultural Achievement award
Honorary Doctor of Letters from Pace University on May 25, 2004
Honorary Degree from Brandeis University on May 21, 2006Further Information
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