After 2001 cancellation, Kushner to read from his work

Tonight at 7:30, award-winning playwright Tony Kushner will be giving a 15 to 20-minute reading from one of his works at Richardson Auditorium. Kushner is best known for the critically acclaimed play "Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes."

"He is, I guess, the great citizen playwright of the United States," Program in Theatre and Dance director Michael Cadden said. "The most recent work [of Kushner's] includes Laura Bush sort of encountering Dostoyevsky's grand inquisitor," he continued, referring to Kushner's unfinished antiwar play "Only We Who Guard the Mystery Shall Be Unhappy." Cadden went on to comment. "I think it'll be great to see a playwright who's so engaged in the life of the nation...at this particular cultural moment."

Program in Judaic Studies program manager Marcie Citron explained that after the reading, "Emily Mann, who's the artistic director at McCarter Theatre, will be on stage with him and will proceed to ask him a series of questions back and forth about his career [and] about his writing." The floor will then open up to questions from the audience.

Kushner's appearance is somewhat belated; in 2001, the Program in Judaic Studies sponsored a Jewish writer's conference which Kushner was originally scheduled to attend. Kushner, however, had to cancel at the last minute, according to director of the Program in Judaic Studies Froma Zeitlin, because of a deadline for the HBO adaptation of his play. Tonight, he fulfills his promise to make it up to the Program in Judaic Studies with his presentation.

The event is also sponsored by the Perelman Institute and has been designated as the annual Biderman Lecture. Admission is free.