Tony Kushner facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Tony Kushner
Kushner in 2016
Born	(1956-07-16) July 16, 1956 (age 69) Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
Occupation	Playwright author screenwriter
Education	Columbia University (BA) New York University (MFA)
Notable awards	Full list
Spouse	Mark Harris ​ (m. 2008)​

Anthony Robert Kushner (born July 16, 1956) is an American writer. He is famous for writing plays and screenplays for movies. One of his most well-known plays is Angels in America. This play won a special award called the Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award. It was also made into a popular TV show by HBO.

Tony Kushner has worked a lot with the famous movie director Steven Spielberg. Together, they have made several successful films. In 2013, he received the National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama. Kushner is one of the few writers to be nominated for an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award. These are major awards in entertainment.

His play Angels in America: Millennium Approaches first appeared on Broadway in 1993. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play for it. Later, in 2003, he wrote the TV version of the play. This earned him an Emmy Award for his writing.

In 2003, Kushner also wrote the words and story for the musical Caroline, or Change. This musical earned him nominations for two Tony Awards. A new Broadway show of Caroline, or Change in 2021 also got him a nomination for a Grammy Award.

He has worked with director Steven Spielberg on several movies. These include Munich (2005), Lincoln (2012), West Side Story (2021), and The Fabelmans (2022). His work on these films has earned him four Academy Award nominations. These nominations were for Best Picture and for his screenplays.

Tony Kushner's Early Life and School

Kushner at Columbia University in 1978

Tony Kushner was born in Manhattan, New York City. His mother, Sylvia, played the bassoon. His father, William, played the clarinet and was a conductor. His family is Jewish, and their ancestors came from Russia and Poland. Soon after he was born, his parents moved to Lake Charles, Louisiana. He grew up there.

When he was in high school, Kushner was very active in debate. He became interested in a historical figure named Roy Cohn when he was ten. His father explained a time of political fear called McCarthyism to him.

In 1974, Kushner moved back to New York for college. He studied at Columbia University and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1978. He then went to Tisch School of the Arts at NYU and finished in 1984. During his graduate studies, he spent summers directing plays for gifted children in Lake Charles. He directed his own early works and plays by William Shakespeare.

Kushner has also received several special degrees from universities. These are called honorary degrees. He received them from places like Columbia College Chicago and Brandeis University.

Tony Kushner's Career as a Writer

Kushner's most famous work is Angels in America. This play is very long, about seven hours, and is in two parts. It tells a story about a serious health crisis in New York during the 1980s. The play was later made into an HBO TV show, and Kushner wrote the script for it.

Some of his other plays include Slavs!: Thinking About the Longstanding Problems of Virtue and Happiness and A Bright Room Called Day. He also wrote the story for the musical Caroline, or Change. He has also translated and adapted plays by other famous writers. For example, he translated Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children.

In the early 2000s, Kushner started writing for movies. He co-wrote the movie script for Munich in 2005. This film was directed by Steven Spielberg. In 2006, a documentary film about Kushner called Wrestling with Angels was shown.

In 2011, it was announced that he was working with Spielberg again. He wrote the script for a movie about Abraham Lincoln. The movie, Lincoln, won many awards. It was also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at the Golden Globes and Oscars.

In 2016, Kushner worked on the script for the movie Fences. This film was directed by Denzel Washington and released in December 2016.

Kushner is known for often changing and improving his plays. He works on them for many years. For example, his play The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures started as a novel. It took over ten years before it was finally performed in 2009.

In 2018, it was announced that Kushner was writing a new script for West Side Story. Steven Spielberg directed this movie. West Side Story was released in December 2021 and received good reviews. It was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

In 2022, Kushner worked with Spielberg again on The Fabelmans. This movie tells a fictional story inspired by Spielberg's own childhood. The film was highly praised and won an award at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival. The Fabelmans received seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay.

In 2023, Tony Kushner was nominated for a Grammy Award for Caroline, or Change. This made him one of the few writers to be nominated for all four major American entertainment awards. These are the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Awards.

Tony Kushner's Personal Life

Tony Kushner and his partner, Mark Harris, had a commitment ceremony in 2003. They were legally married in 2008 in Provincetown, Massachusetts.

Mark Harris is an editor for Entertainment Weekly. He has also written several books. These include Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War.

Kushner is good friends with theatre director Michael Mayer. They met when they were studying at NYU.

Tony Kushner's Works

Plays

• The Age of Assassins, 1982.
• La Fin de la Baleine: An Opera for the Apocalypse, 1983.
• The Heavenly Theatre, 1984.
• The Umbrella Oracle, 1984.
• Last Gasp at the Cataract, 1984.
• Yes, Yes, No, No: The Solace-of-Solstice, Apogee/Perigee, Bestial/Celestial Holiday Show, 1985.
• Stella (adapted from a play by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe), 1987.
• A Bright Room Called Day, 1985.
• In Great Eliza's Golden Time, 1986.
• Hydriotaphia, 1987.
• The Illusion (adapted from Pierre Corneille's play), 1988.
• In That Day (Lives of the Prophets), 1989.
• (With Ariel Dorfman) Widows (adapted from a book by Ariel Dorfman), 1991.
• Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, Part One: Millennium Approaches (1991).
• Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, Part Two: Perestroika, 1992.
• Slavs!: Thinking About the Longstanding Problems of Virtue and Happiness, 1995.
• Reverse Transcription: Six Playwrights Bury a Seventh, A Ten-Minute Play That's Nearly Twenty Minutes Long, 1996.
• A Dybbuk, or Between Two Worlds (adapted from Joachim Neugroschel's translation), 1997.
• The Good Person of Szechuan (adapted from the original play by Bertolt Brecht), 1997.
• (With Eric Bogosian and others) Love's Fire: Seven New Plays Inspired by Seven Shakespearean Sonnets, 1998.
• Terminating, or Lass Meine Schmerzen Nicht Verloren Sein, or Ambivalence, in Love's Fire, 1998.
• Henry Box Brown, or the Mirror of Slavery, 1998.
• Homebody/Kabul, 2001.
• Caroline, or Change (musical), 2002.
• Only We Who Guard The Mystery Shall Be Unhappy, 2003.
• Translation of Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children (2006).
• The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures 2009.
• Tiny Kushner, a performance of five shorter plays, 2009.

Books

• A Meditation from Angels in America (1994)
• Thinking about the Longstanding Problems of Virtue and Happiness: Essays, a Play, Two Poems, and a Prayer (1995)
• Howard Cruse (1995) Stuck Rubber Baby, introduction by Kushner.
• David B. Feinberg (1995) Queer and Loathing: Rants and Raves of a Raging AIDS Clone, introduction by Kushner.
• David Wojnarowicz (1996) The Waterfront Journals, introduction by Kushner.
• "Three Screeds from Key West: For Larry Kramer", (1997).
• Moises Kaufman (1997) Gross Indecency, afterword by Kushner.
• Plays by Tony Kushner (1999). Includes:
  • A Bright Room called Day
  • The Illusion
  • Slavs!: Thinking About the Longstanding Problems of Virtue and Happiness
• Death & Taxes: Hydrotaphia, and Other Plays, (1998). Includes:
  • Reverse transcription
  • Hydriotaphia: or the Death of Dr. Browne
  • G. David Schine in Hell
  • Notes on Akiba
  • Terminating
  • East Coast Ode to Howard Jarvis
• Brundibar, illustrated by Maurice Sendak, 2003.
• Peter's Pixie, by Donn Kushner, introduction by Tony Kushner, 2003.
• The Art of Maurice Sendak: 1980 to the Present, 2003.
• Save Your Democratic Citizen Soul!: Rants, Screeds, and Other Public Utterances.
• Wrestling with Zion: Progressive Jewish-American Responses to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, with Alisa Solomon, 2003.
• Arthur Miller: Collected Plays 1941–1961, 2006 (editor).
• Arthur Miller: Collected Plays 1964–1982, 2012 (editor).
• Arthur Miller: Collected Plays 1987–2004, with Stage and Radio Plays of the 1930s & 40s, 2015 (editor).

Films

• Munich, a film by Steven Spielberg (2005) – screenplay (co-written).
• Lincoln, a film by Steven Spielberg (2012) – screenplay.
• Fences, a film by Denzel Washington (2016) – screenplay (uncredited), co-producer.
• West Side Story, a film by Steven Spielberg (2021) – screenplay, executive producer.
• The Fabelmans, a film by Steven Spielberg (2022) – screenplay (co-written), producer.

Television

• Angels in America, a miniseries by Mike Nichols (2003) – teleplay.

Opera

• La Fin de la Baleine: An Opera for the Apocalypse, (opera) – 1983.
• St. Cecilia or The Power of Music, (opera libretto).
• Brundibar, (an opera in collaboration with Maurice Sendak).

Director

• Helen, written by Ellen McLaughlin, 2002.

Awards and Honors for Tony Kushner

Tony Kushner has won many awards. These include two Tony Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award. He has also been nominated for four Academy Awards and a Grammy Award.

Some of his other honors include:

• 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Drama – for Angels in America: Millennium Approaches.
• 2002 PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award.
• 2008 Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award.
• 2011 Puffin/Nation Prize for Creative Citizenship.
• 2012 St. Louis Literary Award.
• 2013 Elected Member, American Philosophical Society.
• 2013: The Lincoln Forum's Richard Nelson Current Award of Achievement.

See also

In Spanish: Tony Kushner para niños

• Dramatic license
• LGBT culture in New York City
• List of LGBT people from New York City