Portland Playhouse Presents ANGELS IN AMERICA: Millennium Approaches

For the holidays this season, Portland Playhouse brings audiences a transcendent, pivotal play that reaches into the human heart seeking to find a tether during a season rife with memory and in anticipation of change in the year to come. Performances begin December 8, 2011 at the World Trade Center Theater.

In Angels in America, set against a landscape of greed, sexual politics, and the cries of a sweeping AIDS epidemic, a lost America teeters on the tipping point of an unknown future resonating strongly in today’s world. This is a story of love, power, and identity that follows characters as diverse as a Mormon housewife, an ex-drag queen, and the fiery attorney Roy Cohn. On the stage it’s 1985 and an Angel with steel wings is hurtling toward Earth: Angels In America: Millennium Approaches.

When the play premiered, this masterpiece of contemporary American theatre addressed the timely issues of the AIDS crisis in the American gay community. Now, the globalization of the AIDS epidemic and the advances in medical treatment have dramatically changed how the disease is both managed and regarded, and the gay community in the U.S. has made major strides toward equal rights while also facing new challenges. This play revisits the historical and social context and looks forward at the ongoing impact of Angels in America on American theatre and society. How does the play serve as a window into that past, and what does it have to say to us today?

“Angels in America is the epic play of our generation. It transcends a 'theatre audience' or the 'gay audience' and has become a cultural phenomenon,” says Brian Weaver, Director. “Angels is the perfect play for the season and the New Year, it is about change and evolution; for ourselves, our culture, our world. It's a ‘Gay Fantasia on National Themes’ after all, what better way to spend the holidays.”

The cast includes stage luminaries Wade McCollum, Gretchen Corbett, Nikki Weaver, Noah Jordan, Ebbe Roe Smith, Chris Harder, Lorraine Bahr and Berwick Haynes.

In 1993, Angels In America: Millennium Approaches won many major awards including: Drama Desk award for Best Play; New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play; Pulitzer Prize for Drama; Tony Award for Best Play.

ANGELS IN AMERICA: Millennium Approaches

Written by: Tony Kushner
Directed by: Brian Weaver
Performance Dates: December 8 - 31
Thursday through Saturday at 7:30pm
Sunday at 2pm
Added performances: Dec 20 & 21 at 7:30pm; Dec 30 at 2pm
Opening Night is Saturday, December 10
Preview performances December 8 & 9
Special event performance on New Year’s Eve, December 31
Cast: Lorraine Bahr – The Angel of America
Gretchen Corbett – Hannah Pitt
Chris Harder – Joe Pitt
Berwick Haynes – Belize
Noah Jordan – Louis Ironson
Wade McCollum – Prior Walter
Ebbe Roe Smith – Roy Cohn
Nikki Weaver – Harper Pitt
Venue: World Trade Center Theater
121 SW Salmon Street Portland, OR 97204
Tickets: $15-$32
Box Office: 503-205-0715; www.portlandplayhouse.org

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