Director Joe Dowling today announced that the Guthrie Theater will celebrate the work of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner in a landmark series set for the spring of 2009. In addition to presenting the previously announced Guthrie commission, tentatively titled The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures, Dowling also announced plans for productions of Caroline, or Change on the Wurtele Thrust Stage and a collection of Kushner's short plays in the Dowling Studio as part of the upcoming 2008-09 Season. These three simultaneous productions will join a series of speakers, scholars and other special events designed to fully examine and celebrate Kushner's body of work.
At the heart of the activities surrounding the three core productions is a unique collaboration between the Guthrie and the University of Minnesota, which will offer a spring-semester course focusing on the work of Kushner. The Guthrie and the University will also collaborate to compile and make accessible to the public a collection featuring original manuscripts by Kushner, set and costume designs, models, photographs and videos from his past productions. During this same period, the University Theatre will present a production of Kushner's 1985 play, A Bright Room Called Day. In addition to the University-based programs, the Guthrie will host a full calendar of pre- and post-play discussions, Inside Look workshops, Saturday morning gatherings featuring local artists and University faculty, major speaking engagements and a series of other education and outreach programs.
Production and ticket information for the
Tony Kushner celebration will be announced March 24, alongside the other productions included in 2008-09 Season.
About
Tony KushnerBorn in New York City in 1956, and raised in Lake Charles, Louisiana,
Tony 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; and
Caroline, or Change, the musical for which he wrote book and lyrics, with music by 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 books include
Brundibar, 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.
Kushner is the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, an Emmy Award, two Tony Awards, three Obie Awards, an Oscar nomination, an Arts Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the PEN/
Laura Pels Award for a Mid-Career Playwright, a Spirit of Justice Award from the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, and a Cultural Achievement Award from The National Foundation for Jewish Culture, among many others. Most recently, Caroline or Change, produced in the autumn of 2006 at the
Royal National Theatre of Great Britain, received the Evening Standard Award, the London Drama Critics' Circle Award and the Olivier Award for Best Musical. He is the subject of a documentary film,
Wrestling with Angels: Playwright Tony Kushner, made by the Oscar-winning filmmaker Freida Lee Mock. He is currently working on a screenplay about Abraham Lincoln. He lives in Manhattan with his husband,
Mark Harris.
About the Guthrie
The Guthrie Theater, founded in 1963, is an American center for theater performance, production, education and professional training. The Guthrie is dedicated to producing the great works of dramatic literature, developing the work of contemporary playwrights and cultivating the next generation of theater artists. Led by Director
Joe Dowling since 1995, the Guthrie recently moved to their new three-theater home on the banks of the Mississippi River in Minneapolis.
The Guthrie is located at 818 South 2nd Street (at
Chicago Avenue), in downtown Minneapolis. To purchase tickets or season subscriptions call the Guthrie Box Office between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. daily at 612.377.2224 or toll-free 877.44.STAGE. For more information, or to purchase tickets online, visit www.guthrietheater.org.
