Kushner was born inManhattan, the son of Sylvia (née Deutscher), abassoonist, and William David Kushner, aclarinetist and conductor.[2][3] His family is Jewish, descended from immigrants fromRussia andPoland.[4][5][6][7][8] Shortly after his birth, Kushner's parents moved toLake Charles, Louisiana, the seat ofCalcasieu Parish where he spent his childhood. During high school Kushner was active in policy debate. He first developed an interest in the figure ofRoy Cohn—who features as a major character in his playAngels in America—when he was ten years old, after asking his father about the meaning ofMcCarthyism, to which his father responded by giving his son a copy ofFred J. Cook’sThe Nightmare Decade.Video onYouTube
In 1974, Kushner moved back to New York to begin hisundergraduate college education atColumbia University, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree inMedieval studies in 1978.[9] He attended theTisch School of the Arts atNYU, graduating in 1984. During graduate school, he spent the summers of 1978–1981 directing both early original works (Masque of the Owls andIncidents and Occurrences During the Travels of the Tailor Max) and plays by Shakespeare (A Midsummer Night's Dream andThe Tempest) starring the children attending the Governor's Program for Gifted Children (GPGC) in Lake Charles.
As a student at NYU, Kushner cofounded the theatre company 3P Productions (short for "Politics, Poetry, and Popcorn") for which he wrote and directed plays such as the dance-theatre pieceLa Fin de la Baleine: An Opera for the Apocalypse.[15] In 1985, he received a yearlongNational Endowment for the Arts directing fellowship at theSt. Louis Repertory Theater. His first commercially produced play wasA Bright Room Called Day, which premiered at San Francisco'sEureka Theatre Company in 1987. The company subsequently commissioned a play from Kushner, which along with a $50,000 National Endowment for the Arts grant, spawned Kushner's best known work,Angels in America.[16] A play in two parts (Millennium Approaches andPerestroika),Angels in America is a seven-hour epic about the AIDS epidemic inReagan-era New York. It had its world premiere at the Eureka Theatre in 1991, followed by productions at theRoyal National Theatre, theMark Taper Forum, and theWalter Kerr Theatre onBroadway.Millennium Approaches won thePulitzer Prize for Drama, and both parts of the play won consecutiveTony Awards forBest Play in 1993 and 1994.
Kushner is famous for frequent revisions and years-long gestations of his plays. BothAngels in America: Perestroika andHomebody/Kabul were significantly revised even after they were first published. Kushner has admitted that the original script version ofAngels in America: Perestroika is nearly double the length of the theatrical version.[17] His newest completed play,The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures, began as a novel more than a decade before it finally opened on May 15, 2009.
In a 2015 interview actress/producerViola Davis revealed she had hired Kushner to write an as yet untitled biopic about the life ofBarbara Jordan that she planned to star in.[20] In 2016, Kushner worked on a screenplay version ofAugust Wilson's playFences; theresulting film, directed byDenzel Washington, was released in December 2016. Though his work as a writer was ultimately uncredited, Kushner served as co-producer on the film.
In 2018, it was announced that Kushner was working on a script of a remake ofWest Side Story for Spielberg to direct.[21]West Side Story was released in December 2021 to positive reviews and received seven Academy Award nominations includingBest Picture.[22][23] In 2022, Kushner collaborated again with Spielberg onThe Fabelmans, a fictionalized account of Spielberg's childhood. The film premiered at the2022 Toronto International Film Festival to widespread critical acclaim and won the festival'sPeople's Choice Award.[24]The Fabelmans received seven Academy Award nominations including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay.
Kushner'ssix-word memoir was "At least I never votedRepublican."[25][26] Hiscriticism of the Israeli government's treatment ofPalestinians and the increasedreligious extremism inIsraeli politics and culture has created some controversy with American Jews,[27] including some opposition to his receiving an honorary doctorate at the 2006 commencement ofBrandeis University. During the controversy, quotes critical ofZionism and Israel made by Kushner were circulated. Kushner said at the time that his quotes were "grossly mischaracterized". Kushner told theJewish Advocate in an interview, "All that anybody seems to be reading is a couple of right-wing Web sites taking things deliberately out of context and excluding anything that would complicate the picture by making me seem like a reasonable person, which I basically think I am."[28]
In an interview with theJewish Independent, Kushner commented, "I want the state of Israel to continue to exist. I've always said that. I've never said anything else. My positions have been lied about and misrepresented in so many ways. People claim that I'm for aone-state solution, which is not true." He later stated that he hopes that "there might be a merging of the two countries because [they're] geographically kind of ridiculous looking on a map", although he acknowledged that political realities make this unlikely in the near future.[29] Kushner has received backlash from family members due to his political views of Israel.[30]
On May 2, 2011, the Board of Trustees of theCity University of New York (CUNY),[31] at their monthly public meeting, voted to remove (by tabling to avoid debate) Kushner's name from the list of people invited to receive honorary degrees, based on a statement by trustee Jeffrey S. Wiesenfeld about Kushner's purported statements and beliefs about Zionism and Israel.[32][33] In response, theCUNY Graduate Center Advocate began a live blog on the "Kushner Crisis" situation, including news coverage and statements of support from faculty and academics.[34] Three days later, CUNY issued a public statement that the Board is independent.[35]
On May 6, three previous honorees stated they intended to return their degrees:Barbara Ehrenreich,Michael Cunningham, andEllen Schrecker.[11] Wiesenfeld said that if Kushner would renounce his anti-Israel statements in front of the Board, he would be willing to vote for him.[36] The same day, the Board moved to reverse its decision.[37] Kushner accepted the honorary doctorate at the June 3 graduation for the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.[38]
Kushner and his partner,Mark Harris, held a commitment ceremony in April 2003,[40] the first same-sex commitment ceremony to be featured in the Vows column ofThe New York Times.[41] In summer 2008, Kushner and Harris were legally married at the town hall inProvincetown, Massachusetts.[42]
Harris is an editor ofEntertainment Weekly and author ofPictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood,Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War, andMike Nichols: A Life.
He is close friends with theatre directorMichael Mayer, whom he met while studying at NYU.[43]
"Incidents and Occurrences During the Travels of the Tailor Max," Lake Charles, Louisiana, Governor's Program For Gifted Children, 1980.
The Age of Assassins, New York, Newfoundland Theatre, 1982.
La Fin de la Baleine: An Opera for the Apocalypse, New York, Ohio Theatre, 1983.
The Heavenly Theatre, produced at New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, 1984.
The Umbrella Oracle, Martha's Vineyard, The Yard, Inc..
Last Gasp at the Cataract, Martha's Vineyard, The Yard, Inc., 1984.
Yes, Yes, No, No: The Solace-of-Solstice, Apogee/Perigee, Bestial/Celestial Holiday Show, produced in St. Louis, Imaginary Theatre Company, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, 1985, published inPlays in Process, 1987.
Reverse Transcription: Six Playwrights Bury a Seventh, A Ten-Minute Play That's Nearly Twenty Minutes Long, Louisville, Humana Festival of New American Plays, Actors Theatre of Louisville, March 1996.
A Dybbuk, or Between Two Worlds (adapted fromJoachim Neugroschel's translation of the originalYiddish playThe Dybbuk byS. Ansky; produced in New York City at the Joseph Papp Public Theater, 1997), Theatre Communications Group, 1997.
The Good Person of Szechuan (adapted from the original play byBertolt Brecht), Arcade, 1997.
Love's Fire: Seven New Plays Inspired by Seven Shakespearean Sonnets (withEric Bogosian and others), Morrow, 1998.
Terminating, or Lass Meine Schmerzen Nicht Verloren Sein, or Ambivalence, in Love's Fire, Minneapolis, Guthrie Theater Lab, January 7, 1998; New York: Joseph Papp Public Theater, June 19, 1998.
A Meditation from Angels in America (1994) Harper, San Francisco,ISBN0-06-251224-2
Thinking about the Longstanding Problems of Virtue and Happiness: Essays, a Play, Two Poems, and a Prayer (1995) Theatre Communications Group, New York, NYISBN1-55936-100-X
"Three Screeds from Key West: For Larry Kramer", (1997) inWe Must Love One Another or Die: The Life and Legacies of Larry Kramer, edited by Lawrence D. Mass, St. Martin's Press, New York, pp. 191–199.ISBN0-312-22084-7
Plays by Tony Kushner (New York: Broadway Play Publishing, 1999),ISBN0-88145-102-9. Includes:
A Bright Room Called Day (First published 1994)
The Illusion, freely adapted fromPierre Corneille'sL'Illusion comique
Slavs!: Thinking About the Longstanding Problems of Virtue and Happiness
Death & Taxes: Hydrotaphia, and Other Plays (1998). Theatre Communications Group (New York, NY),ISBN1-55936-156-5. Includes:
Reverse transcription
Hydriotaphia: or the Death of Dr. Browne (adaptation ofHydriotaphia, Urn Burial, a fictitious, imaginary account of Sir Thomas Browne's character not based upon fact)
La Fin de la Baleine: An Opera for the Apocalypse (opera) – 1983
St. Cecilia or The Power of Music (opera libretto based onHeinrich von Kleist's eighteenth-century storyDie heilige Cäcilie oder Die Gewalt der Musik, Eine Legende)
Brundibar (an opera in collaboration with Maurice Sendak)
Gerard Raymond, "Q & A With Tony Kushner,"Theatre Week (December 20–26, 1993): 14–20.
Mark Marvel, "A Conversation with Tony Kushner,"Interview, 24 (February 1994): 84.
David Savran, "Tony Kushner," inSpeaking on Stage: Interviews with Contemporary American Playwrights, edited by Philip C. Kolin and Colby H. Kullman (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1996), pp. 291–313.
Robert Vorlicky, ed.,Tony Kushner in Conversation (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1998).
Victor Wishna, "Tony Kushner," inIn Their Company: Portraits of American Playwrights, Photographs by Ken Collins, Interviews by Victor Wishna (New York: Umbrage Editions, 2006).
Jesse Tisch, "The Perfectionist: An Interview with Tony Kushner,"Secular Culture & IdeasArchived September 24, 2020, at theWayback Machine 2009.
Christopher Carbone, Q & A With Tony Kushner, L Style G Style, (May/June 2011):[2]
Michał Hernes, "Kushner: Polityczna dusza Amerykanów została okaleczona" inPolityczna dusza Amerykanów została okaleczona, May 17, 2012.
Anderson, Virginia (2022) "Tony Kushner" in Noriega and Schildcrout (eds.)50 Key Figures in Queer US Theatre, pp. 118–122. Routledge. ISBN 978-1032067964.
Contemporary Literary Criticism, Gale (Detroit), Volume 81, 1994.
Bloom, Harold, ed.,Tony Kushner, New York, Chelsea House, 2005.
Brask, Anne, ed., "Ride on the Moon", Chicago, Randomhouse, 1990.
Brask, Per K., ed.,Essays on Kushner's Angels, Winnipeg, Blizzard Publishing, 1995.
Media related toTony Kushner at Wikimedia Commons
