LJWorld.com

When Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama "Angels in America, Part 1: Millennium Approaches" was first performed a decade ago in Los Angeles it caused quite a stir.

The play was controversial because its leading male characters are homosexuals and its action revolves around the AIDS epidemic. After all, it was the Reagan era then, and AIDS was considered by some conservatives, both religious and not, as a justified consequence of homosexual behavior.

A decade has past, and AIDS has become a fact of life around the world. But Jack Wright, director of University Theatre's upcoming production of the "Angels in America," says the irony is that although AIDS isn't on the front page anymore, it continues to kill multitudes of people.

And because George W. Bush, an echo of his presidential father's conservative views, is running for the nation's highest political office, Wright says the play is as relevant as ever.

"The millennium is now here and the issues are still immediate," he says. "The '80s were a very political time, and many minorities felt neglected and ignored. There was no group more hated than homosexuals. Reagan's seeming indifference to their plight and his blatant disregard for the AIDS crisis prompted Kushner to write this play.

"The references to Reagan and the conservative movement are from the '80s, yet we currently have a conservative candidate running for president. In the play, one character asks, 'What's going to happen in the year 2000?' We can laugh about it now because his predictions didn't come true."

Set in the 1980s, the play revolves around Prior, a man living with AIDS whose lover, Louis, has left him and becomes involved with Joe, an ex-Mormon and political conservative, whose wife, Harper, is having a nervous breakdown. Adding to the action is a fictionalized re-creation of Roy Cohn, an American conservative lawyer who discovers he has AIDS.

"This is a very well-written play," Wright says. "It is a complex play that has an epic feel to it, but is also intimate and human. The sweeping issues raised in the play are counterbalanced by very human scenes showing us individuals with very private personas."

Wright said the play isn't a heroic look at Louis, who can't come to grips with the guilt associated with his inability to take care of a loved one who's dying.

"It's about the issue of commitment how we do it or don't do it and how it's different for all of us," Wright says. "I hope to bring out (the characters') humanness."

Wright says "Angels in America" is one of the most technically difficult plays he has ever directed. In addition, eight actors play 20 characters who weave in and out the action.

"It is a very scary project," he says, "and that, probably, is good enough reason to do it."

Christian Boy is scenic designer. Casey Kearns in costume designer. Dennis Christilles, KU associate professor of theater and film, is lighting designer, and John Staniunas, KU assistant professor of theater and film and a professional actor, plays Louis.

Other cast members are KU students Ryan Colwell, Jeffrey Brown, Xavier Rice, Megan Schemmel, Kristen Bush, Clancy O'Connor and Mo Perry.