In Conversation with Tony Kushner

with Special Guest Interviewer Mary-Louise Parker

 Born in New York City in 1956, and raised in Lake Charles, Louisiana, Kushner is best known for his two-part epic, Angels In America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes. His other plays include A Bright Room Called Day, Slavs!, Hydrotaphia, Homebody/Kabul; as well as a musical Caroline, or Change, and opera A Blizzard on Marblehead Neck, both with composer Jeanine Tesori. Kushner has translated and adapted Pierre Corneille’s The Illusion, S.Y. Ansky’s The Dybbuk, Bertolt Brecht’s The Good Person of Sezuan and Mother Courage and Her Children, and the English-language libretto for the children’s opera Brundibár by Hans Krasa. He wrote the screenplays for Mike Nichols’ film of Angels In America, and Steven Spielberg’s Munich. His screenplay for Spielberg’s movie Lincoln was nominated for an Academy Award, and won the New York Film Critics Circle Award, Boston Society of Film Critics Award, Chicago Film Critics Award, and several others. He wrote the screenplay for Spielberg’s award-winning 2021 movie remake of West Side Story. He co-wrote, along with Stephen Speilberg, the script for The Fabelmans, a semi-autobiographical film based on Spielberg’s childhood. It was later nominated for the 2023 Academy Award for Writing (Original Screenplay). His books include But the Giraffe: A Curtain Raising and Brundibar: the Libretto, 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. He is also the author of a collection of one-act plays titled Tiny Kushner, The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures, and an adaptation of Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s The Visit, or The Old Lady Comes to Call. In addition, a revival of Angels in America ran off-Broadway at the Signature Theater and won the Lucille Lortel Award in 2011 for Outstanding Revival. A revision of his earlier play, now titled A Bright Room Called Day Revisited, from TCG was released in 2023.

Special guest interviewer for the evening will be actress Mary-Louise Parker. Parker played the role of Harper Pitt in the acclaimed HBO television miniseries Angels in America, based on Kushner’s renowned play of the same name. For her portrayal, Parker receive both a Golden Globe and a Primetime Emmy Award.

This evening will consist of an onstage interview, after which he will take audience questions. A book signing will follow the event.