Angels in America

About Tony Kushner

Tony Kushner is an American playwright and screenwriter. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1993 for his play Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes. Tony Kushner's other plays include A Bright Room Called Day; Hydriotaphia or The Death of Dr. Brown; The Illusion adapted from the play by Pierre Corneille; Slavs!; Homebody/Kabul; Caroline or Change a musical with composer Jeanine Tesori; The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures; and The Visit adapted from the play by Friedrich Dürrenmatt. His translations include S. Y. Ansky's The Dybbuk; Bertolt Brecht's The Good Person of Sezuan and Mother Courage and Her Children; and the libretto for Hans Krása and Adolf Hoffmeister's Brundibár a children's opera for which he wrote a curtain-raiser But the Giraffe! He wrote the screenplays for Mike Nichols's film of Angels in America and for Steven Spielberg's Munich and Lincoln. His books include The Art of Maurice Sendak: 1980 to the Present; Brundibar with illustrations by Maurice Sendak; and Wrestling with Zion: Progressive Jewish-American Responses to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict co-edited with Alisa Solomon. Among many honours Kushner is the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize two Tony Awards three Obie Awards two Evening Standard Awards an Olivier Award an Emmy Award two Oscar nominations and the Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2012 he was awarded a National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama.