Tony Kushner Original Airdate: May 10, 1998

In his relatively brief career, Lousiana-born playwright Tony Kushner has ascended to heights of which few dream. His modern epic "Angels in America,"e; characterized by Newsweek as "the broadest, deepest, most searching American play of our time," has won a Pulitzer Prize and two Tony Awards amid a host of recognition which reflects its critical success on both coasts and in numerous arenas. Although the Lake Charles native has traveled far from home in a phenomenally successful career, he continues to draw upon his Jewish roots and Socialist beliefs to write of the moral responsibilities people face during times of political repression.

Following his Louisiana upbringing, Kushner attended Columbia and NYU and found in screenwriting a medium in which he could express thoughts meditated upon for many years. Kushner's early career yielded adaptations of Goethe's "Stella," Brecht's "The Good Person of Setzuan," Ansky's "The Dybbuk" and Corneille's "The Illusion," as well as the publication of his own "A Bright Room Called Day," but meteoric success and recognition came with the 1996 production of the first segment of his seven-hour, two-part "Angels In America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes." Following the release of the controversial but critically accalimed "Angels," Kushner completed a "coda" to the epic work entitled "Slavs! Thinking about the Longstanding Problems of Virtue and Happiness," and is currently working on a trio of history plays that explore "the phenomenon and phenomonology of money" in various times and settings.

While Kushner jokingly identifies playwriting as the "one thing" he does "even halfway well," an on-screen version of "Angels In America" may appear. Kushner has adapted the script himself and is currently considering costs and possible production executives. Although he recognizes that to spread oneself too thin can be the death of quality in any artistic medium or form, he is also at work on three screenplays, as well as on his dialogue-based theater work. A sometimes reluctant though always enthusiastic spokesperson, Kushner famously advised President Clinton on his 1997 State of the Union Address after meeting him at a dinner in celebration of national Medal of Arts honorees. In addition, he often speaks on behalf of and writes on gay and socialist themes -- the latter of which he believes Americans find more difficult to hear.