Angels... Approaches

Greetings all! It's been quite a while since our last post, but as our Mainstage season is fast approaching, we wanted to give you a peek at what's been going on in preparation for our first production, Tony Kushner's Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes - Part One: Millennium Approaches. We'll be posting every Monday from now until when the show opens with all kinds of interesting stuff from designers, cast members, and (potentially) folks from the community, too!

To start off, Angie has shared a little about the play and why we chose to produce it...

"This play, first produced in 1990, was a catalytic theatrical event of the last twenty years and is generally regarded one of the finest and most influential plays of the 20th century. Though most of its plot points revolve around AIDS and gay life, the themes are much wider: loss, identity, home, truth. Tony Kushner masterfully explores timeless human concerns through the lens of the AIDS epidemic, specifically as it affects Prior Walter and Roy Cohn, two of the main characters.

We have been attracted to this play for years. I saw it on Broadway in the mid-90s, and the characters' stories and the piece's inherent theatricality stuck with me. Its intimate scenes are well-suited to our space and our aesthetic, and its theatricality is an exciting challenge. Kushner, like Shakespeare, often works with pairs--opposites, complementary pairings, and things that look like opposites but really aren't...we are using this structural inclination to inform our design choices and the approach to this sprawling, gorgeous play.

We are thrilled to be working on this piece. The designers, cast and I have been working for weeks already to distill our approach to this play, and to define our theatrical language. Already, many people have asked, 'How are you going to do the Angel?' All I can say is wait and see. It's gonna be awesome."

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And now you can meet some of the people involved! Pictures are from a reading of the play we had a couple weeks ago with most of the cast (including one castmember in Los Angeles via video iChat!), designers, and NCSC staff.

Angie - Director, Rob Bowen - Lighting Designer, Charlie, Michael MacCauley - Roy Cohn, Vivian Smith - the Angel, Willie Repoley - Prior Walter, Rebecca Morris - Harper Pitt

Andrew Livingston - Joe Pitt, Jessica Kammerud - Props Designer

Michael MacCauley - Roy Cohn, Willie Repoley - Prior Walter

Rebecca Morris - Harper Pitt

To meet the rest of the cast not pictured, you can check out the Angels page on our website.

If checking out these pictures has piqued your interest in what it would be like to sit in on a reading, you're in luck 'cause next Monday, September 13 at 6 PM we kick off the first reading of our (For)Play series at the Carol Belk Theater on the UNCA campus by reading Angels in America: Millennium Approaches.

So you've never been to a (For)Play reading? Here's the deal: The (For)Play Series is a series of free readings of our Mainstage plays before rehearsals begin. If you enjoy watching the artistic process unfold, we encourage you to come to this initial reading and then buy a ticket to see the fully realized production. For an even more in-depth look, buy a copy of the script at Malaprop's Bookstore, which is stocking all of NC Stage's plays this season.

More to come... just wait 'til next week!