NoteS
Yale School of Drama presents
A Klee painting named Angelus Novus shows an angel looking as though he is about to move away from something he is fixedly contemplating. His eyes are staring, his mouth is open, his wings are spread. This is how one pictures the angel of history. His face is turned toward the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe that keeps piling ruin upon ruin and hurls it in front of his feet. The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and make whole what has
Angels in America, Part Two:
Perestroika
been smashed. But a storm is blowing from Paradise; it has got caught in his wings with such violence that the angel can no longer close them. The storm irresistibly propels him into the future to which his back is turned, while the pile of debris before him grows skyward. This storm is what we call progress. —Walter Benjamin, Theses on THE Philosophy of History
In Tony Kushner’s Perestroika, the second of two plays that comprise his epic Angels in America, people learn to accept the inevitability of loss and change as they are propelled into uncertain futures and forced to navigate the world’s inadequate social systems (religion, politics, sex, and so on). They resist the inertia of despair and find hope within seemingly hopeless circumstances, facing life with resilience, bravery, and humor.
Tony Kushner Ron Van Lieu
by directed by
Why are we so addicted to life when it’s so painful? In the face of immense devastation, why is the freedom to construct a new life so terrifying? —Delilah Dylan Dominguez, production dramaturg
2011–12 season
The Studio Series productions are designed to be learning experiences that complement classroom work, providing a medium for students at Yale School of Drama to combine their individual talents and energies toward the staging of collaboratively created works. Your attendance meaningfully completes that process.
Thursday, October 6 AT 4PM Friday, October 7 AT 3:30PM and 8PM Saturday, October 8 AT 4PM ISEMAN THEATER 1156 CHAPEL STREET