ANGELS IN AMERICA Returns to NYC Tonight with Ivo van Hove's Revival at BAM

Angels in America by Tony Kushner will be revived by Toneelgroep Amsterdam an directed by Ivo van Hove at BAM's Howard Gilman Opera House (30 Lafayette Ave) tonight, October 23 & 24 at 7 p.m. and October 25 at 6 p.m. The production will feature set and light design by Jan Versweyveld, costume design by Wojciech Dziedzic, video design by Tal Yarden and music by Wim Selles. In Dutch with English titles.

Tickets start at $40. Duration: 5hrs 10 min (with 45 minute meal break).

Under the virtuosic direction of Ivo van Hove, Toneelgroep Amsterdam presents its masterfully raw and incisive approach to Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize-winning contemporary classic, Angels in America. Set in New York City in the 80s, this deeply layered work presents a mosaic of stories about people struggling with love, sexuality, religion, and the disastrous consequences of AIDS. The play consists of two parts: "Millennium Approaches" where three separate storylines are introduced and gradually become interwoven, and "Perestroika," where the play moves toward an unreal world of hallucinations, revealing resonant themes of transformation, release, resilience, and rebirth.

For this five-hour theater marathon, van Hove has stripped the stage bare of all scenery, resting the drama instead on the extraordinary shoulders of the acclaimed Toneelgroep Amsterdam actors as they struggle through the lives of their deftly drawn characters-the haunted Prior Walter and his boyfriend Louis, Reaganite lawyer Roy Cohn, and closeted Mormon Joe Pitt and his wife Harper.

About the artists:

Ivo van Hove began his career as a stage director in 1981, with plays he had also written, including Ziektekiemen and Geruchten. He was the artistic manager at AKT, Akt-Vertical, and De Tijd, successively. Between 1990 and 2000 he was the director of Het Zuidelijk Toneel. Since 2001 van Hove has been general director of Toneelgroep Amsterdam (the Amsterdam Theatre Group). He has coordinated productions at the Edinburgh International Festival, the Venice Biennale, the Holland Festival, Theater der Welt in Germany, and the Wiener Festwochen in Vienna. He has also worked in London, Canada, Lisbon, Paris, Verona, Hannover, Porto, Cairo, Poland, and New York. He has directed at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg, the Staatstheater in Stuttgart, and New York Theatre Workshop.

At Toneelgroep Amsterdam, van Hove has directed Roman Tragedies (2012 Next Wave), Cries and Whispers by Ingmar Bergman (2011 Next Wave), Opening Night by John Cassavetes (2008 BAM Next Wave), Rocco and his Brothers by Luchino Visconti, Teorema, based on the work of Pier Paolo Pasolini (in partnership with the Ruhrtriennale), Antonioni Project by Michelangelo Antonioni, La voix humaine (The Human Voice) by Jean Cocteau, Zomertrilogie (Summer Trilogy) by Carlo Goldoni, Kinderen van zon (Children of the Sun) by Gorky for Toneelgroep Amsterdam and NTGent, Nooit van elkaar (And We'll Never Be Parted) by Jon Fosse, de Russen! (The Russians! Platonov meets Ivanov) by Tom Lanoye, and Husbands by John Cassavetes.

Van Hove produced Thuisfront for Dutch television and his first film, Amsterdam, in 2009. He directed the musical Rent for Joop van den Ende. At the Vlaamse Opera he staged a production of Lulu (Alban Berg) and the complete Ring cycle by Wagner (2006-08). He also mounted productions of Jana?cek's De Zaak Makropoulos, Tchaikovsky's Iolanta and Der Schatzgra?ber by Franz Schreker for the De Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam. From 1998 to 2004, van Hove was the festival manager of the Holland Festival, where he presented an annual selection of international theater, music, opera, and dance. Since 1984, van Hove has been part of the artistic management of the department of dramatic art at Hogeschool Antwerpen.

His current works on stage include The Fountainhead, Na de repetitie/Persona (After the rehearsal/Persona) by Ingmar Bergman, and Antigone with Juliette Binoche.

Van Hove has earned numerous honors, including two OBIE Awards for best off- Broadway production in New York-for More Stately Mansions and Hedda Gabler-as well as the East Flanders Oeuvre Prize (1995), the Theatre Festival Prize (1996), and the Archangel Award at the Edinburgh Festival (1999). He was made a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France in 2004. In 2007 he received the Prijs van de Kritiek in the Netherlands, a prize awarded by theater critics and he and Jan Versweyveld received the Prosceniumprijs, a Dutch theater prize, in 2008.

Toneelgroep Amsterdam presents internationally acclaimed contemporary theater from its home base, the Amsterdam Stadsschouwburg. As the Netherlands' largest repertory company it holds a prominent place in the Dutch capital's international cultural scene. With an annual average of 20 plays and more than 350 performances, the company entertains audiences of 100,000 each year.

The company's unique approach to a wide range of projects has made a tremendous impact on theaters and artists around the world. Toneelgroep Amsterdam has collaborated with such artists as Krzysztof Warlikowski, Christoph Marthaler, Wim Vandekeybus, Johan Simons, Thomas Ostermeier and Grzegorz Jarzyna and works internationally with organizations including the Holland Festival, NTGent, the Belgian arts centers in Antwerp and Ghent, Wiener Festwochen, RuhrTriennale, Festival d'Avignon, BAM, Lincoln Center Festival, Festival Transamerique Montreal, Barbican London, Schaubu?hne Berlin, and the Mu?nchner Kammerspiele.

Born in New York City in 1956, and raised in Lake Charles, LA, Tony Kushner is best known for his two-part epic, Angels In America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes. His other plays include A Bright Room Called Day, Slavs!, Hydrotaphia, Homebody/Kabul, and Caroline, or Change, the musical for which he wrote book and lyrics, with music by Jeanine Tesori. Kushner has translated and adapted Pierre Corneille's The Illusion, S.Y. Ansky's The Dybbuk, Bertolt Brecht's The Good Person of Szechwan and Mother Courage and Her Children, and the English-language libretto for the children's opera Brundiba?r by Hans Krasa. He wrote the screenplays for Mike Nichols' film of Angels In America, and Steven Spielberg's Munich and Lincoln. His screen plays were nominated for Academy Awards, and Lincoln won the New York Film Critics Circle Award, Boston Society of Film Critics Award, Chicago Film Critics Award, and several others. His books include But the Giraffe: A Curtain Raising and Brundibar: the Libretto, with illustrations by Maurice Sendak; The Art of Maurice Sendak: 1980 to the Present; and Wrestling with Zion: Progressive Jewish-American Responses to the Palestinian/Israeli Conflict, co-edited with Alisa Solomon. His recent work includes a collection of one-act plays entitled Tiny Kushner, and The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures. A revival of Angels in America ran off-Broadway at the Signature Theater and won the Lucille Lortel Award in 2011 for Outstanding Revival.

Kushner is the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, 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. Caroline, or Change, produced at the National Theatre of Great Britain, received the Evening Standard Award, the London Drama Critics' Circle Award, and the Olivier Award for Best Musical. In September

2008, Tony Kushner became the first recipient of the Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award. He is the subject of a documentary film, Wrestling with Angels: Playwright Tony Kushner, made by the Oscar-winning filmmaker Freida Lee Mock. He lives in Manhattan with his husband, Mark Harris. Tony Kushner's Homebody/Kabul with Linda Emond and Maggie Gyllenhaal was staged at BAM in May 2004.

BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, BAM Rose Cinemas, and BAMcafé are located in the Peter Jay Sharp building at 30 Lafayette Avenue (between St Felix Street and Ashland Place) in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn. BAM Harvey Theater is located two blocks from the main building at 651 Fulton Street (between Ashland and Rockwell Places). Both locations house Greenlight Bookstore at BAM kiosks. BAM Fisher, located at 321 Ashland Place, is the newest addition to the BAM campus and houses the Judith and Alan Fishman Space and Rita K. Hillman Studio. BAM Rose Cinemas is Brooklyn's only movie house dedicated to first-run independent and foreign film and repertory programming. BAMcafé, operated by Great Performances, offers a dinner menu prior to BAM Howard Gilman Opera House evening performances. BAMcafe? also features an eclectic mix of live music for BAMcafe? Live on Friday and Saturday nights with a bar menu available starting at 6pm.

Talk: Ivo van Hove and Tony Kushner
Oct 22 at 7pm
BAMcafé (30 Lafayette Ave)
Tickets: $25 ($12.50 for Friends of BAM)

Photo Credit: Jan Versweyveld

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