Production History

1990 — Angels in America Part I: Millennium Approaches was commissioned and work shopped in Los Angeles at the Mark Taper…

Cultural Context-The AIDS Crisis

The AIDS pandemic began in the early 1980s and brought with it a surge of emotions from the public, they were afraid, angry, fearful, and defiant. The arrival of AIDS also brought with it a condemnation of the LGBT community. These emotions, along with the view on the…

Lesson Plans

1. Topic: Angels in America Lesson Title: Ronald Reagan Era Level: Intermediate Objectives: Obtain knowledge of Ronald Reagan’s stance on…

Production Notes

In many ways, Tony Kushner’s Angels in America saga is a series of encounters with history. The vast amount of historical…

World of the Play

Angels in America Part I: Millennium Approaches takes place in New York City over several months, from the last weeks of October 1985 to the first weeks of January 1986, around the time of Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration. In the New York City of the mid-1980s, the twin towers still formed a…

Questions

1. What is the significance of Roy Cohn’s “I wish I was an octopus” speech?
2. What is the importance of the intertwining of the real and the imaginary in Harper’s visions?
3. In what ways do Roy and Prior have similar views on lawsuits?

Check-in 4

Having family members living with HIV/AIDS really gave me the motivation for doing the dramaturgy on this play. Knowing how it affects real…

Check-in 3

Tony Kushner was a very interesting person, reading into his life was super interesting to me to see how many different things he had his…