Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes: Revised and Complete Edition (37 page)

George C. Wolfe has been an inspiring and indefatigable collaborator on this final stage of shaping the play; he’s been brilliantly insightful, respectful and galvanizing. The last step was the hardest, and I wouldn’t have managed it without him.

From the revised edition, published in 1996:

While making the most recent revisions in the text, I’ve been particularly indebted to Michael Mayer, Mark Wing-Davey, Brian Kulick and Tess Timoney.

For this edition:

In 2007 Rupert Goold and the Headlong theater production of
Angels
toured England and played for six weeks at the Lyric Hammersmith in London. The director, Daniel Kramer, in preparation for the production, asked me many questions, and engaged me in a series of delightful, pointed and challenging discussions, which got me back to work on
Perestroika
for the first time in several years.

In 2009, I saw the first revival of Ivo van Hove’s 2008 production of
Angels
with the Toneelgroep Amsterdam. As is so often the case in the work of this extraordinary theater artist, Ivo found a new, boldly imaginative form of stage life for
Angels
through a serious, meticulous, deep exploration of its text. Ivo and I didn’t discuss alterations to the plays, but his production and his company’s performances changed my understanding of what I’d written and powerfully impacted my thinking about further revisions for
Perestroika
.

Those revisions began in earnest when Jim Houghton and the Signature Theatre Company wanted to include
Angels
as one of the three plays for my Signature season, in 2010–2011. Because of Jim’s enormous, indefatigable generosity, enthusiasm and patience, as well as the devotion and endless kindness of Beth Whitaker, Kirsten Bowen and the whole Signature staff, it was possible for me to dig into
Perestroika
, accompanied every step along the way by our director, the great Michael
Greif, and the dazzling company of actors he assembled. I was able to experiment with new scenes, talk and argue about them with colleagues whose passion, acuity and talent made exhilarating the scary business of attempting to improve a script that for many years had worked just fine. They bravely allowed me to flounder around, to fine-tune what worked before many preview audiences, and finally to come close to feeling that I’d truly completed a play—at least for the time being. My gratitude extends to Michael and every actor in the company, and most particularly to Bill Heck, who had to incorporate the largest number of changes and who was dedicated, energetic, gracious and fearless throughout.

I’m deeply indebted to Harold Bloom’s reading of the Jacob story, which I first encountered in his introduction to Olivier Revault d’Allonnes’s
Musical Variations on Jewish Thought
, in which Bloom translates the Hebrew word for “blessing” as “more life.” Bloom expands on his interpretation in
The Book of J
.

Yiddish translations were graciously provided by the late Joachim Neugroschel, and additionally by Jeffrey Salant.

The late Ian Kramer, Esq. provided essential information about the juridical mischief of the Reagan–era federal bench. The court cases in Act Four,
Scene 10
, are actual cases with some of the names and circumstances changed.

Sigrid Wurschmidt

Act Two of
Perestroika
is dedicated to Sigrid Wurschmidt, a radiantly intelligent, passionate and beautiful actor and a member of the Eureka Theatre Company. The part of the Angel
was originally written for her. While I was writing the play, Sigrid was diagnosed with breast cancer. Anticipating her hair falling out during chemotherapy, she shaved her head, which is one reason the Angel refers to herself as “the bald eagle.”

Angels
was originally meant to be a two-hour-long play. In the fall of 1988, having finished the first draft of two acts and most of a third act that covered less than half of the narrative I’d outlined, I flew to San Francisco to read what I’d written with the Eureka actors and Oskar Eustis. The purpose of the reading was to help Oskar and me decide what could be cut to bring the play down to a normal length. After the reading, which lasted nearly three hours, everyone walked to Sigrid’s house for a discussion over lunch. On the way, Sigrid took my arm and asked me to tell her what I imagined would happen in the rest of the play. I told her. When we reached her house I showed her a sketch in my notebook for Harper’s final speech about her night flight to San Francisco. Sigrid read it, and told me that the play needed to be long enough to include it. I responded that the play was already so long that I didn’t see how I’d be able to fit much more in. “Well you have to use this speech,” Sigrid replied, and then added, matter-of-factly, “make the play two evenings long.” That possibility hadn’t occurred to me, at least not consciously, and I took it as being one of those silly things you say to comfort a playwright in trouble. But she made sure I understood: she meant it.

Sigrid played the Angel in the first-ever public reading of
Millennium Approaches
, at Mark Taper Forum’s Taper Too in Los Angeles, in the fall of 1989. After that reading, too ill to continue, she handed the role over to her close friend and mine, the divine Ellen McLaughlin. Sigrid died in 1990.

And finally:

My friends and indispensable colleagues Antonia Grilikhes-Lasky and Kyle Warren, in addition to epic note-taking and endless proofreading, were tireless, supportive, and offered sage advice throughout this process.

My agent, Joyce Ketay, took me on as a client in 1984, when I’d written one play that had yet to receive a professional production. She’s protected me and my work through many perilous passages; her advice, attention and acumen prevented
Angels
from killing its author and vice versa. She’s one of my dearest friends. I rely on her too often and for far too much and she never complains, though sometimes she makes faces.

My existence since birth has been bracketed by my extraordinary sister and brother, Lesley and Eric, who keep the world glued together for me, and for whose support I’m more thankful than it’s my ability or any sibling’s obligation to fully express.

I met my husband, Mark Harris, after much of my work on
Angels
had been completed, but for the play’s ongoing life, as he has for everything in my ongoing life, he’s provided wise counsel, a writer’s unerring ear, a sharp editor’s eye, and more happiness than I ever expected to find in this ongoing life. And also he’s very very funny.

A few months after I started work on
Perestroika
in 1990, my mother, Sylvia Deutscher Kushner, died of cancer. She’s a mighty presence in the play.

My father, William David Kushner, died in March 2012. He was a great artist and a great father and he, too, is everywhere in these pages.

Oskar Eustis commissioned
Angels in America
and has been intimately involved in every stage of its development. Without his great intelligence, talent, friendship and
determination, the project would have been neither begun nor completed. I began
Angels
as a conversation, real and imaginary, between Oskar and myself; that conversation has never stopped, and never will.

Without Mark Bronnenberg, my first lover, my forever friend, and one of my favorite homosexuals, I wouldn’t have known any of the things I needed to know to write
Angels
.

Kimberly T. Flynn taught me much of what I now believe to be true about life: theory and practice. Her words and ideas are woven through the work, and our friendship formed its bedrock. This is her play as much as it’s mine.

Production History

The actors, directors and designers who have worked with me on
Angels in America
have transformed it. The following list includes those productions that significantly contributed to the play’s development.

Millennium Approaches
was first performed in a workshop production presented by Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, in May 1990. It was directed by Oskar Eustis. Sets were designed by Mark Wendland, costumes by Lydia Tanji, lights by Casey Cowan and Brian Gale, and music by Nathan Birnbaum. The cast was as follows:

The world premiere of
Millennium Approaches
was presented by the Eureka Theatre Company in San Francisco, in May 1991. It was directed by David Esbjornson. Sets were designed by Tom Kamm, costumes by Sandra Woodall, and lights by Jack Carpenter and Jim Cave. The cast was as follows:

Perestroika
was first performed in a staged reading by the Eureka Theatre Company in San Francisco, in May 1991. It was directed by David Esbjornson. Sets were designed by Tom Kamm, costumes by Sandra Woodall and lights by Jack Carpenter and Jim Cave. The cast was as follows:

Millennium Approaches
opened in London, at the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain, in January 1992. It was directed by Declan Donnellan. It was designed by Nick Ormerod, lights by Mick Hughes, and music by Paddy Cunneen. The cast was as follows:

Perestroika
was further developed in a workshop at Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, in May 1992. Oskar Eustis and Tony Taccone directed the staged reading. The cast was as follows: