Courtesy of our friends at the Court Theatre, here's a video of Tony Kushner reflecting on his play Angels in America, with the artistic director Charlie Newell, at the first rehearsal for the spring production.
Tony Kushner will be the guest of honor at the AIDS Foundation of Chicago's 2012 fundraising dinner, An Angel Among Us: A Evening with Pulitzer Prize-winning Playwright Tony Kushner, on March 27. Tickets can be purchased online or by calling Rhett Lindsay, AFC’s manager of fundraiser events, at (312) 334-0935.
The Court Theatre’s preview performances of Angels in America begins March 30. Proceeds from the April 14 opening night performance go to AFC.
Angels in America: The Play That Goes Clunk
Friday, February 17, 2012
By Lauren Whalen
When I was 18, I did an art project against my will.
As a theatre major at Loyola University Chicago, I was required to take Introduction to Theatrical Design. Early in the semester, we had to create a conceptual project based on a favorite play. No rules. Just do it.
After 13 years of Catholic school, where structure was the air we breathed, I was at a loss. I couldn’t even draw a straight line.
The previous semester, I had been assigned Tony Kushner’s Angels in America. From the moment I sat down to read the play, on a bench facing Lake Michigan on a mild November day, I’d fallen in love with it. But even though I’d written a paper about the play, I still couldn’t express exactly why I loved it.
When Mary Lu Roffe’s brother died of AIDS in 1992, his death left a void in her life that likely will never be filled.
In a recent interview, she fought back tears before the first question had been asked.
“People say it gets better with time,” said Roffe, a longtime board member for the AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC). “It does not. It really doesn’t.”
But when Tom Rubnitz died, he also left his sister a way forward, a path lit by HIV/AIDS activism and theatrical production for the past 20 years.
Shortly after his death, Roffe was elected to the AFC board. Within the same year, she was asked to be an associate producer of Angels in America, Tony Kushner’s groundbreaking play that spurred conversation on AIDS, when the national tour launched at the Royal George Theatre in Chicago in 1994.
“I knew there was some plan left for me,” she said. “I couldn’t think of a more important project to begin a career. It’s the greatest play ever written in my opinion. I said yes.”
Now, as the play returns this spring, opening at the Court Theatre on April 14, and with Tony Kushner as the guest of honor at AFC's 2012 fundraising dinner, An Angel Among Us on March 27, there is a feeling of things coming full circle. There is also a “thrill” for Roffe, who helped forge the first connection between Angels and AFC.
Do you ever feel there are critical advances in HIV/AIDS prevention that aren't being properly covered in the mainstream media? Or that there are complex HIV/AIDS-related healthcare and funding issues not being clearly explained? Or that there are powerful HIV/AIDS stories here in Chicago just waiting for someone to tell them? We feel that way, too!
At the AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC), we’re committed to changing the story of HIV/AIDS. Inside Story aims to take you inside that story, to give you an intimate look at how AFC, and other Chicago and national organizations, are fighting HIV/AIDS through medical, housing and support services; cutting-edge research into prevention and treatment methods; and advocacy for stronger HIV-AIDS public policy from legislators.
If you have questions or blog ideas, please contact AFC staff writer Gregory Trotter at gtrotter@aidschicago.org.
By Lauren Whalen 
