Play Reading Book Club Intensive: Tony Kushner's Angels in America *In-Person* *NEW*

American playwright Tony Kushner's two-play epic Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes turns 35 this coming May. In this intensive, we'll read through and discuss both parts: Millennium Approaches and Perestroika. From the very premiere performance, Angels has meant many things to many people. The plays are both timeless and urgent. Several interlacing stories explore gay, Jewish, Mormon, and Black identities, as iconic fictional characters like Prior Walter, Belize, and Hannah Pitt share the stage with real historical figures, including Ethel Rosenberg and, notably, Roy Cohn. In the wake of Ali Abbasi's film The Apprentice (2024), starring Sebastian Stan as a young Donald Trump and Jeremy Strong as his mentor Roy Cohn, Kushner's version of Cohn has taken on a new meaning. Taken as a whole work, Angels tackles revelation, hope, self-loathing, justice, and, above all, the persistence of love. 

Instructor: Josh Platt

Sections

Instructor

Josh Platt has a life-long love for literature and the performing arts. A graduate of Emerson College's Master of Arts program in Theatre Education, he has directed, acted in, and served as dramaturg for projects which engage with major works from the Western canon through a 21st century and often a feminist lens. He teaches theater to students of all ages.