Guthrie Theater

"All Minneapolis, it seems, belonged to Kushner"
AMERICAN THEATRE PROFILES GUTHRIE'S KUSHNER CELEBRATION

Read the complete story at
http://www.guthrietheater.org/sites/default/files/AmThOct09Kushner_web.pdf

(Minneapolis/St. Paul) From April 18 through June 28, a company of more than 25 Minneapolis and New York actors came together at the Guthrie to participate in a one-of-a-kind celebration of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner's work, including productions of Caroline, or Change, the world premiere Guthrie commission The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures, and an evening of short plays dubbed Tiny Kushner. With the stunning success of the Kushner Celebration, in mainstream media, blogs and social networking sites like Twitter; in coffee shops, restaurants and gatherings throughout the Twin Cities; and in the Guthrie's lobbies, bars and box office lines, everyone was talking Kushner.

David Savran reports on the celebration in this month's issue of American Theatre.

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Kushner's Children of the Revolution
by David Savran
American Theatre (October 2009)

Near the main entrance to the striking new Guthrie Theater stands huge steel panels embossed with photographs of seven titans of modern drama: Chekhov, Shaw, O'Neill, Williams, Miller, Hansberry and Wilson. With its unprecedented Tony Kushner Celebration, which filled all three of its stages for 10 weeks this past summer, the Guthrie seems intent on adding Kushner to that pantheon. Thanks to substantial public and private funding the collaboration of the University of Minnesota, the festival included new productions of Caroline, or Change, directed by Marcela Lorca; an evening of five short plays entitled Tiny Kushner, directed by Tony Taccone; and the premiere of The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures, directed by Michael Greif. Given its series of speakers, scholars, special events, readings, seminars, workshops, and pre- and post-play discussions, the Guthrie was offering the equivalent of a college course on Kushner and related topics, from Marxism and Latin poetry to the civil rights movement and gay activism. One of the theatre's restaurants was serving menus inspired by Caroline (Cajun) and The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide (Italian), while the Guthrie Store had to order an extra shipment of a popular T-shirt with "Intelligent Homosexual" emblazoned across its front. All Minneapolis, it seems, belonged to Kushner.

Going to the Guthrie for an Extreme Kushner Weekend was a remarkable experience. The theatre building itself-with its acres of seductive and spectacular public spaces overlooking the Mississippi River, designed by Jean Nouvel to function as kind of a new-fangled town square-is worth the pilgrimage, and during the Kushner Celebration, it was filled with people of all ages, colors and sexualities. Unlike New York theatres, in which parties of spectators rarely converse with each other, the Guthrie was filled with buzzing crowds discussing the play's themes, analyzing the directing and acting and debating the contentious issues that Kushner's work always raises. I found myself talking to people in elevators, on sidewalks, in restaurants. Theater, in other words, was doing what so many of us have long waited to do-serving as a catalyst for social and political dialogue. Kushner himself is famously sanguine about the political power of theatre, which, he says, is "the only place where trickle-down actually applies." Theater can deeply affect its "intellectually curious, sophisticated, progressive" audience, he believes-it "gets them thinking, it changes them, which in turn changes the way they behave, which changes the way they engage with politics and the rest of the world."

The Kushner Celebration was the brainchild of Guthrie artistic director Joe Dowling and was several years in the planning. It offered the playwright the opportunity to work again with Taccone, who had directed the premiere of Angels in America; Greif, who had staged A Bright Room Called Day at the Public Theater; and three extraordinary actors who happen to be Kushner alumni-Kathleen Chalfant, Linda Emond and Stephen Spinella. The centerpiece of the festival was The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide, commissioned in 2006 by the Guthrie and Kushner's first full-length spoken drama since Homebody/Kabul in 2001.

The full story appears in this month's issue of American Theatre magazine.