Tony Kushner in Conversation

8 PM (Doors 7 PM)

Purchase Tickets by phone: 1.800.461.3333

Tony Kushner is a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer best known for his two-part epic, Angels In America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes.

Kushner wrote the screenplays for Mike Nichols’ film of Angels In America, and Steven Spielberg’s Munich. His 2012 screenplay for Spielberg’s movie Lincoln was nominated for an Academy Award, and won the New York Film Critics Circle Award, Boston Society of Film Critics Award, Chicago Film Critics Award, and several others.

In Toronto for one night only, Kushner – in conversation with Philip Akin, Artistic Director of Toronto’s Obsidian Theatre – will talk about how he “tackles the most difficult subjects in contemporary history” (The New Yorker) and his thoughts on the future of contemporary theatre in North America.

Don’t miss this chance to see one of the world’s greatest living playwrights and among the most significant thinkers of our time.

Tony Kushner
Born in New York City in 1956, and raised in Lake Charles, Louisiana, Tony Kushner is the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama (for Angels In America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes), an Emmy Award, two Tony Awards, three Obie Awards, an Arts Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a PEN/Laura Pels Award, a Spirit of Justice Award from the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, a Cultural Achievement Award from The National Foundation for Jewish Culture, a Chicago Tribune Literary Prize for lifetime achievement, and the 2012 National Medal of Arts, among many others.

Kushner’s other plays include A Bright Room Called Day, Slavs!, Hydrotaphia, Homebody/Kabul, The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures, and Caroline, or Change, the musical for which he wrote book and lyrics, with music by composer Jeanine Tesori. He is currently working on screenplays for two major films: Denzel Washington’s adaptation of Fences — August Wilson’s play about the 1950’s African American experience; and the memoir He Wanted the Moon, by Mimi Baird and Eve Claxton, to be produced by Brad Pitt.

Philip Akin
Philip Akin has been acting and directing for more than 30 years. He is a founding member of Obsidian Theatre, Canada’s leading black theatre company, and has served as its Artistic Director since 2006. In this role, he has worked tirelessly to provide opportunities and guidance for emerging artists. Accolades for Akin include the Mallory Gilbert Leadership Award, the Bra D’Or Award from the Playwright’s Guild of Canada, the Toronto Sun’s Performance Artist of the Year, and the Silver Ticket Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Arts presented by the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts.

Philip Akin’s recent and upcoming projects include directing Athol Fugard’s “MASTER HAROLD” .. and the boys at the Shaw Festival; Lisa Codrington’s Up the Garden Path, and Venus’ Daughter by Meghan Swaby, both for Obsidian Theatre. Akin was seen in the 2009 remount of The Last days of Judas Iscariot (Birdland Theatre), and the 2007 productions of Othello and Of Mice and Men (Stratford Shakespeare Festival). His directing credits include Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Ruined; Toronto the Good, and El Paso (Factory Theatre); Intimate Apparel (Citadel Theatre, Canadian Stage, Obsidian Theatre), and Black Medea, Born Ready, and Pusha Man (Obsidian Theatre). His film and television credits include Shake Hands With the Devil (2007), The Sum of All Fears (2002) and Flashpoint (2008-2011).

Photo above: Joan Marcus.