A Senior Project in Directing for Catherine Alam-Nist
Advised by David Chambers
Angels in America: Perestroika is the second half of Tony Kushner’s epic pair of plays. Set in the midst of the AIDS epidemic, Perestroika follows a cast of characters whose experiences vary vastly as pertains to race, class, gender, sexuality, religion (or lack thereof) and politics; however, all are united in being somehow on the precipice of drastic change in their lives, wanted or not. Both a continuation of Kushner’s first play, and very much an independent play in its own right, Perestroika is distinctive for its groundbreaking depiction of human life, migration, transience and movement as not only sacred when referred to in a select few settings (i.e., church, synagogue, temple, etc.), but as divine in and of itself; it also radically extends who is permitted to be depicted as holy onstage, and what this can look like.
This production will aim to take this radical expansion of the depiction of sacredness onstage even deeper than prominent past stagings of the text have done, via exploring it from a distinctly Jewish perspective, examining the play’s themes of change, transience and transcendence through the lens of Jewish experiences. It also will explore experiences of divinity when experienced simultaneously with illness, which is a topic that feels all the more pertinent amid the COVID pandemic.
