Reading Fair photos
My "Angels in America" project:
Close-ups:
Title & Plot Summary
Right Side
Lower Left Side
Title, Setting & Author's Purpose
It's supposed to be Heaven: sort of a combination of the Angels' great stone table (which is described as being covered in old papers, books, obscure devices, etc) and the post-quake San Francisco look -- the dead leaves, faux-Greek columns, shades of gray and brown.
The columns are two lengthwise halves of an empty wrapping paper roll, covered with cardboard with one side stripped so the corrugation shows; top & bottom of each was built from scratch out of thin cardboard. Base & columns sprayed with different kinds of stone-texture spray paint. Leaves and twigs were gathered from my yard & glued on individually. The book is a real book -- a thin old encyclypedia volume ("F," I think) -- turned backwards and upside down; "title" was handwritten. Paper aged in various ways -- coffee dregs, lemon juice and a hairdryer, etc. The whole thing has endured two transportations, a bad drop, heavy rain and strong wind.
I got especially low points on "Durability," "Creativity," and "Originality of Idea," btw.
Title: Angels in America
Author: Tony Kushner
Publisher and Publication Date: Theatre Communications Group, Inc.: 1995
Dramatis Personæ
THE ANGEL, the Continental Principality of America
PRIOR WALTER, a gay man with AIDS; chosen Prophet of the Anti-Migratory Epistle
LOUIS IRONSON, Prior’s boyfriend, later Joe’s; a word processor at the Second Circuit Court of Appeals
BELIZE, a former drag queen and former lover of Prior’s; RN attending Roy Cohn
ROY M. COHN, a New York lawyer and unofficial power broker, dying of AIDS
JOSEPH PORTER PITT, a Mormon man beginning to admit his own sexuality; a chief clerk at the Second Circuit Court of Appeals
HARPER AMATY PITT, Joe’s wife, an agoraphobic Valium addict
HANNAH PORTER PITT, Joe’s mother
ETHEL ROSENBERG, the ghost of Roy Cohn’s past, haunting him in his dying days
MR. LIES, an imaginary travel agent dreamed up by Harper to take her away from her life
Six other Continental Principalities:
ANTARCTICA
OCEANIA
ASIATICA
EUROPA
AFRICANII
AUSTRALIA
Setting
Angels in America is set in New York City during the first couple of years in which AIDS raised its ugly head; it covers the time frame of October 1985 to February 1986, with an epilogue set in February of 1990. Optional scenes are also set in Salt Lake City and Hell, and the climax of the story takes place in Heaven itself, described as a city much like San Francisco after the Great 1906 Quake, its empty streets strewn with rubble and dead leaves.
The more earthly action takes place in various locations throughout NYC, from character’s homes to Central Park, to a Mormon Visitor’s Center, to the hospital in which two characters, both dying of AIDS, spend several months each.
Plot Summary
When Prior tells his boyfriend Louis that he has been diagnosed with AIDS, it doesn’t take Louis long to discover that he can’t handle disease, and he leaves an agonized Prior to his fate. At the same time, picture-perfect Mormon Joe Pitt is approached by the infamous lawyer Roy Cohn with a prestigious, D.C.-based job offer -- the only catch being that Joe would owe Cohn some less-than-legal favors. The added stress of making such a decision on top of dealing with his wife’s agoraphobia and mild Valium addiction causes Joe to begin breaking down, his long-repressed homosexuality surfacing among the turmoil, to the ruination of his life.
The wildly varied characters’ lives begin to collide and intertwine, as Joe gravitates towards coworker Louis and his wife Harper is left alone with her delusions, among whom (she believes) is Prior, who has begun sharing her dreams. Cohn is also diagnosed with AIDS, and it is at the hospital that he meets his nurse, Belize, a former lover (and also current nurse) of Prior’s. Joe calls home to tell his mother he’s gay, whereupon she sells her house and moves to New York, and through a complicated series of events ends up saving Prior’s life.
Prior, throughout this, has been experiencing visions and voices -- specifically, the voice of one angel, the Continental Principality of America. According to the Angel, God has abandoned Heaven, which is beginning to crumble in His absence, and it is the forward progress of mankind that is causing Heaven to be left behind to die. The Angel declares that Prior is a Prophet, the possessor of the Book of the Anti-Migratory Epistle, and that he must stop the human race from progressing in order to save Heaven.
Conflict
Conflict in Angels in America is a many-layered entity. There is the burgeoning AIDS epidemic and the fear engendered by it; there is the proposal that Heaven is dying, abandoned by God, and the angels’ anger at mankind for driving Him away; there is the fragile relationship between love and loyalty, the ongoing attempt to define betrayal, and the moral confusion born of such discussion.
But the heart of Angels in America is not its epic struggle, but its small, human conflicts -- the way each character’s life connects with each of the others, forming a complicated spiderweb of human interaction, no two relationships the same. Joe cannot bring himself to face his mother, who tries to help Harper as a substitute for her lost son, while Harper rejects her in favor of her imaginary friends Mr. Lies and Prior -- Prior, who is in fact real, and whose boyfriend of four years abandons him at the first sign of a lesion only to pick up a naive coworker, none other than Joe himself. By the end of the play, no two characters have not met, yet as a group they have no idea that their interconnectedness has gone so far. Each and every conversation is fraught with tension and meaning, spawned by each character’s own inner conflict: Joe against his repressed sexuality, Harper against reality, Roy Cohn against his past (represented by the specter of Ethel Rosenberg), Louis against his own sheep-like weakness, Belize against the disease that has taken so many of his friends, Hannah against her son’s sexuality and, by proxy, her own repressed nature.
All character interaction eventually leads to Prior and his choice, which is the very core and essence of every conflict in the play: to cease moving forward and thereby end pain, or to choose more life.
Resolution
In the final act, Prior ascends to Heaven and finally declares his choice: he rejects the mission given him by the Angel of America and demands the blessing of more life, both for himself and for all of mankind. Despite the pain of his disease and of Louis’ abandonment, he understands that the cessation of progress might end all pain, it would also end all joy; there would be nothing. So he chooses life, with all its transient beauty, its failures as well as its successes.
And through the answer to this ultimate question, smaller answers are given afterward: Harper leaves Joe to start the process of her own healing and rehabilitation; Hannah lets go of her inhibitions and allows her long-repressed creativity to bloom, losing her old life but gaining strong friendships with Belize, Prior and Louis; Joe is left to discover himself on his own; Roy Cohn passes away just after being disbarred, but finds new welcome in a Hell suited exactly to his tastes. No resolution is exactly a win, yet none are precisely losses either -- exactly as Prior’s choice predicted.
Author's Purpose
As a play, Angels in America’s most obvious purpose is to entertain audiences. If seen on stage, it cannot be enjoyed at a personal pace; Kushner accommodates this factor by advancing the plot quickly while retaining such a deftness of dialogue that no meaning is lost.
Angels is also intended to inform -- Kushner uses the fast pace of his plot to open up niches here and there for eloquent monologues that touch on social issues varying from racism to patriotism to the nature of love. And as a story centered on the outbreak of AIDS, it helps to fight common misconceptions about the disease and the widespread vilification of those who suffer from it.
Tone
The central theme of Angels in America is the act of making choices, and the tone of the play reflects this. Choices are always bittersweet; there is always a trade-off to be made, a dozen possible paths abandoned for each new path chosen. Angels inspires and encourages its readers to use its message to make their own choices; it does not dictate the reader’s emotions to him or her, merely provides a scenario and forces the reader to feel for him or herself. In a way this seems like abandonment, but at the same time it gives the reader a feeling of freedom, and the sense that important things have been gained despite all the losses involved.
Ultimately, Angels is a joyous celebration of life, taking its bad aspects along with the good and reveling in the resulting wholeness.
So there it is. Lowest score among the judges was 46, highest 61.
-rave
Close-ups:
Title & Plot Summary
Right Side
Lower Left Side
Title, Setting & Author's Purpose
It's supposed to be Heaven: sort of a combination of the Angels' great stone table (which is described as being covered in old papers, books, obscure devices, etc) and the post-quake San Francisco look -- the dead leaves, faux-Greek columns, shades of gray and brown.
The columns are two lengthwise halves of an empty wrapping paper roll, covered with cardboard with one side stripped so the corrugation shows; top & bottom of each was built from scratch out of thin cardboard. Base & columns sprayed with different kinds of stone-texture spray paint. Leaves and twigs were gathered from my yard & glued on individually. The book is a real book -- a thin old encyclypedia volume ("F," I think) -- turned backwards and upside down; "title" was handwritten. Paper aged in various ways -- coffee dregs, lemon juice and a hairdryer, etc. The whole thing has endured two transportations, a bad drop, heavy rain and strong wind.
I got especially low points on "Durability," "Creativity," and "Originality of Idea," btw.
Title: Angels in America
Author: Tony Kushner
Publisher and Publication Date: Theatre Communications Group, Inc.: 1995
Dramatis Personæ
THE ANGEL, the Continental Principality of America
PRIOR WALTER, a gay man with AIDS; chosen Prophet of the Anti-Migratory Epistle
LOUIS IRONSON, Prior’s boyfriend, later Joe’s; a word processor at the Second Circuit Court of Appeals
BELIZE, a former drag queen and former lover of Prior’s; RN attending Roy Cohn
ROY M. COHN, a New York lawyer and unofficial power broker, dying of AIDS
JOSEPH PORTER PITT, a Mormon man beginning to admit his own sexuality; a chief clerk at the Second Circuit Court of Appeals
HARPER AMATY PITT, Joe’s wife, an agoraphobic Valium addict
HANNAH PORTER PITT, Joe’s mother
ETHEL ROSENBERG, the ghost of Roy Cohn’s past, haunting him in his dying days
MR. LIES, an imaginary travel agent dreamed up by Harper to take her away from her life
Six other Continental Principalities:
ANTARCTICA
OCEANIA
ASIATICA
EUROPA
AFRICANII
AUSTRALIA
Setting
Angels in America is set in New York City during the first couple of years in which AIDS raised its ugly head; it covers the time frame of October 1985 to February 1986, with an epilogue set in February of 1990. Optional scenes are also set in Salt Lake City and Hell, and the climax of the story takes place in Heaven itself, described as a city much like San Francisco after the Great 1906 Quake, its empty streets strewn with rubble and dead leaves.
The more earthly action takes place in various locations throughout NYC, from character’s homes to Central Park, to a Mormon Visitor’s Center, to the hospital in which two characters, both dying of AIDS, spend several months each.
Plot Summary
When Prior tells his boyfriend Louis that he has been diagnosed with AIDS, it doesn’t take Louis long to discover that he can’t handle disease, and he leaves an agonized Prior to his fate. At the same time, picture-perfect Mormon Joe Pitt is approached by the infamous lawyer Roy Cohn with a prestigious, D.C.-based job offer -- the only catch being that Joe would owe Cohn some less-than-legal favors. The added stress of making such a decision on top of dealing with his wife’s agoraphobia and mild Valium addiction causes Joe to begin breaking down, his long-repressed homosexuality surfacing among the turmoil, to the ruination of his life.
The wildly varied characters’ lives begin to collide and intertwine, as Joe gravitates towards coworker Louis and his wife Harper is left alone with her delusions, among whom (she believes) is Prior, who has begun sharing her dreams. Cohn is also diagnosed with AIDS, and it is at the hospital that he meets his nurse, Belize, a former lover (and also current nurse) of Prior’s. Joe calls home to tell his mother he’s gay, whereupon she sells her house and moves to New York, and through a complicated series of events ends up saving Prior’s life.
Prior, throughout this, has been experiencing visions and voices -- specifically, the voice of one angel, the Continental Principality of America. According to the Angel, God has abandoned Heaven, which is beginning to crumble in His absence, and it is the forward progress of mankind that is causing Heaven to be left behind to die. The Angel declares that Prior is a Prophet, the possessor of the Book of the Anti-Migratory Epistle, and that he must stop the human race from progressing in order to save Heaven.
Conflict
Conflict in Angels in America is a many-layered entity. There is the burgeoning AIDS epidemic and the fear engendered by it; there is the proposal that Heaven is dying, abandoned by God, and the angels’ anger at mankind for driving Him away; there is the fragile relationship between love and loyalty, the ongoing attempt to define betrayal, and the moral confusion born of such discussion.
But the heart of Angels in America is not its epic struggle, but its small, human conflicts -- the way each character’s life connects with each of the others, forming a complicated spiderweb of human interaction, no two relationships the same. Joe cannot bring himself to face his mother, who tries to help Harper as a substitute for her lost son, while Harper rejects her in favor of her imaginary friends Mr. Lies and Prior -- Prior, who is in fact real, and whose boyfriend of four years abandons him at the first sign of a lesion only to pick up a naive coworker, none other than Joe himself. By the end of the play, no two characters have not met, yet as a group they have no idea that their interconnectedness has gone so far. Each and every conversation is fraught with tension and meaning, spawned by each character’s own inner conflict: Joe against his repressed sexuality, Harper against reality, Roy Cohn against his past (represented by the specter of Ethel Rosenberg), Louis against his own sheep-like weakness, Belize against the disease that has taken so many of his friends, Hannah against her son’s sexuality and, by proxy, her own repressed nature.
All character interaction eventually leads to Prior and his choice, which is the very core and essence of every conflict in the play: to cease moving forward and thereby end pain, or to choose more life.
Resolution
In the final act, Prior ascends to Heaven and finally declares his choice: he rejects the mission given him by the Angel of America and demands the blessing of more life, both for himself and for all of mankind. Despite the pain of his disease and of Louis’ abandonment, he understands that the cessation of progress might end all pain, it would also end all joy; there would be nothing. So he chooses life, with all its transient beauty, its failures as well as its successes.
And through the answer to this ultimate question, smaller answers are given afterward: Harper leaves Joe to start the process of her own healing and rehabilitation; Hannah lets go of her inhibitions and allows her long-repressed creativity to bloom, losing her old life but gaining strong friendships with Belize, Prior and Louis; Joe is left to discover himself on his own; Roy Cohn passes away just after being disbarred, but finds new welcome in a Hell suited exactly to his tastes. No resolution is exactly a win, yet none are precisely losses either -- exactly as Prior’s choice predicted.
Author's Purpose
As a play, Angels in America’s most obvious purpose is to entertain audiences. If seen on stage, it cannot be enjoyed at a personal pace; Kushner accommodates this factor by advancing the plot quickly while retaining such a deftness of dialogue that no meaning is lost.
Angels is also intended to inform -- Kushner uses the fast pace of his plot to open up niches here and there for eloquent monologues that touch on social issues varying from racism to patriotism to the nature of love. And as a story centered on the outbreak of AIDS, it helps to fight common misconceptions about the disease and the widespread vilification of those who suffer from it.
Tone
The central theme of Angels in America is the act of making choices, and the tone of the play reflects this. Choices are always bittersweet; there is always a trade-off to be made, a dozen possible paths abandoned for each new path chosen. Angels inspires and encourages its readers to use its message to make their own choices; it does not dictate the reader’s emotions to him or her, merely provides a scenario and forces the reader to feel for him or herself. In a way this seems like abandonment, but at the same time it gives the reader a feeling of freedom, and the sense that important things have been gained despite all the losses involved.
Ultimately, Angels is a joyous celebration of life, taking its bad aspects along with the good and reveling in the resulting wholeness.
So there it is. Lowest score among the judges was 46, highest 61.
-rave