Tony Kushner and Dan Savage Set for Talk at Intiman Theatre Tonight

To kick off this year's annual theatre festival, The Angels Project, Intiman Theatre will produce Intiman Presents "A Savage Chat with Tony Kushner," tonight, May 10, 2pm, at Town Hall Seattle: An interactive community conversation between the Pulitzer Prize, Emmy Award, and Tony Award-winning playwright of Angels in America, Tony Kushner; internationally syndicated advice columnist and The Stranger Editorial Director Dan Savage; and YOU!

Kushner and Savage will begin with a candid dialogue around the many issues raised by Angels in America: sexuality, race, politics, religion, and more. Then these renowned authors will answer your questions, either in real-time, via video submissions emailed to asktony@intiman.org, or tweeted to @intimantheatre using the hashtag #AskTony.

Tickets are now on sale for $10 at intiman.org. Intiman Presents "A Savage Chat with Tony Kushner" is generously supported by The Stranger, Tom Douglas Company, and Elliott Bay Book Company. Kushner's Seattle visit is made possible by a generous gift from Lalie and Carlo Scandiuzzi.

Kushner's visit serves as the official launch of The Angels Project, which will culminate with a repertory production of the seven-hour masterpiece that is Angels in America, August 12 - September 21, 2014, in honor of the 20th anniversary of Intiman's original productions. Casting has been announced on the Intiman Facebook page. Festival passes go on sale in April.

Throughout spring and summer, as part of The Angels Project, Intiman will also present a series of programs and events to encourage deeper community dialogue around the many issues presented by Angels in America, including a studio production of related work produced and performed by Intiman's 2014 festival interns.

While in Seattle, Kushner will also be the featured guest at Intiman Presents "An Evening with Tony Kushner," an exclusive, intimate dinner at Palace Ballroom on Friday, May 9, to raise support for The Angels Project. For more information on this unique opportunity to be up close and personal with Kushner and other special guests, please visit intiman.org.

Kushner will also receive an honorary degree from Cornish College of the Arts during their commencement ceremony, Saturday, May 10, at McCaw Hall.

About Tony Kushner: While Kushner is best known for Angels In America, his other renowned plays include Slavs!, Homebody/Kabul, and Caroline, or Change. He wrote the screenplays for Mike Nichols' film of Angels In America and Steven Spielberg's Munich and Lincoln, for which Mr. Kushner was nominated for an Academy Award. Mr. Kushner is the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, an Emmy Award, two Tony Awards, three Obie Awards, and the 2012 National Medal of Arts, among many others.

In the mid-1990s, Intiman Artistic Director Warner Shook secured the rights to produce the first regional theatre production of Millenium Approaches (Part One) in spring 1994 after it won the Tony Award on Broadway; Perestroika (Part Two) then opened the 1995 season. Intiman also produced Kushner's Homebody/Kabul in 2003 under the direction of Artistic Director Bartlett Sher.

About Dan Savage: No stranger to the Intiman family -- he created and directed our 2012 world premiere production of the drag comedy extravaganza Miracle! -- Dan Savage is author of the internationally syndicated sex column "Savage Love," Editorial Director of The Stranger, and co-founder of the It Gets Better Project to help prevent suicide among LGBT youth. He is a regular contributor to public radio's This American Life, frequent guest on The Colbert Report and Real Time with Bill Maher, and host of Savage Lovecast, a weekly, call-in advice podcast (iTunes Top 50 Podcasts). Dan's graphic, pragmatic, and humorous advice has changed the cultural conversation about monogamy, gay rights, religiosity, and politics.

About Intiman Theatre: Intiman Theatre produces an annual theatre festival that is exciting, relevant to our time, and diverse as the community in which we live. A professional and socially progressive theatre, Intiman produces a locally sourced festival in Seattle, created by a diverse community committed to authentic storytelling, and operating within a flexible, sustainable producing model. In 2013, Intiman won the Seattle Times' Footlight Awards for Best New Musical and Great Performances for our production of Stu for Silverton, a new musical about the first openly transgender mayor in America heralded as "groundbreaking."

In 2014, Intiman's festival theme is The Angels Project, which commences May 9-10 with a visit by Tony Kushner, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Angels in America; continues throughout spring and summer with a series of community programs and events inspired by the plays' themes; and concludes in August and September with a repertory production of both parts of Angels in America, to honor the 20th anniversary of Intiman's original productions of Kushner's two-play epic. The Angels Project is generously sponsored by BECU. For more information, visit intiman.org.

Photo Credits: Joan Marcus (L), LaRae Lobdell (R)