Biography of Tony Kushner

Illustration by Zach Trenholm http://www.salon.com/weekly/interview960610.html

Tony Kushner was born in 1956 in New York City. Soon after his birth, he and his family moved to Lake Charles, Louisiana where he lived throughout his childhood and high school ("Tony Kushner" 1). He started noticing differences between himself and his other friends when was about six years old. He found he had feelings for his male friends and that he exhibited other feminine characteristics commonly associated with gay males, although he did not "come out" until his sophomore year in college. In fact, he spent many years in counseling trying to escape his gay feelings ("Kushner, Tony" 1).

In 1978, Kushner received his bachelor's degree from Columbia University in medieval literature. During his sophomore year in college he finally realized his feelings would not go away and that he should accept himself as queer. It was this year when he came out to his family and friends. After finishing his undergraduate degree, he went to New York University where he received his Master's of Fine Arts in directing (Hogan 334).

In the early 1980s, Kushner began writing and producing plays. He started by working as an assistant director at the St. Louis Repertory Theater. His career continued to escalate when he became the artistic director at the New York Theatre Workshop. In the mid 1980s, Kushner started writing and producing his own plays, the first of which was La Fin de la Baleine: An Opera for the Apocalypse. Soon after Yes Yes No No: The Solace-of-Solstice, Apogee/Perigee, Bestial/Celestial Holiday Show, The Heavenly Theatre, In Great Eliza's Golden Time, and The Illusion were produced.

As a result of these plays, Kushner became a well known playwright, but it wasn't until the 1990s that his career really began to take off. His first play to get real attention was A Bright Room Called Day which hit the stage in 1987. In 1991 Kushner produced his first hit play, Millennium Approaches. This play was part one of two in Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes. Part two of the play was produced nearly a year later in 1992. Angels in America took the theater and queer communities by storm. Its openly gay characters, as well as its bold discussion of the AIDS crisis which swept the queer community at the time, amazed audiences as well as critics and continues to do so today.

Kushner is still writing and producing plays. He is currently working as an adjunct faculty member of New York University's Dramatic Writing Program ("Tony Kushner" 1).