From April 18 through June 28, the Guthrie Theater will be presenting a special series focusing on the work of Tony Kushner, esteemed playwright and celebrated advocate of the GLBT community. The centerpiece of the Kushner Celebration will be the world premiere of Tony’s latest work, The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures, and the only hint that Guthrie Director Joe Dowling will give is that it “will have a family dynamic, and will be dealing directly with gay issues.” Commissioned by the Guthrie, the new Kushner play will be led by Michael Greif, director of Rent and Grey Gardens.

The series will also include showings of Caroline, or Change, Kushner’s 2006 play set in his hometown of Lake Charles, Louisiana. In Caroline, winner of the Olivier Award for Best Musical, among others, an African-American maid faces a conflict of money and conscience between maintaining her relationship with Noah, her employer’s son, and the necessity of caring for her own children. The Kushner Celebration will also present Tiny Kushner a compilation of Kushner’s short plays, shown in succession every evening in the theater’s studio space.

As the Guthrie presents this series, it continues to cement its place in American theater, being, in Kushner’s own words, “truly legendary, one of the cradles of the serious residential theater movement that revolutionized American drama.” In turn, Dowling declares Kushner to be “one of the most important voices in American theater today.” The playwright of such greats as Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, Kushner has indeed left his mark on the face of theater as we know it. He is the deserving recipient of a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, an Emmy Award, two Tony Awards, and of special interest, a Spirit of Justice Award from the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders.

From his and husband Mark Harris’ home in Manhattan, Kushner has become a commentator on issues ranging from AIDS and race to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the state of education in the United States. The Kushner Celebration will include lectures by New York Times Op-Ed columnist Frank Rich, Lambda Legal Executive Director Kevin M. Cathcart, and Tony himself. Additional seminars, taught by University of Minnesota professors, will center on Kushner’s writing style, the various themes presented in his works, the writers whom have personally influenced him, and the United States as a diminishing world superpower.

Quorum has always been proud to have the Guthrie as a member of our chamber and we’re especially proud now. We will be organizing two group outings to participate in the Kushner celebration, first for the Quorum Young Professionals on April 21st, then again for our May Networking event on the 19th.