The Impact of Angels in America on LGBTQ Literature

Sarah Rose Leonard, Baruch Porras-Hernandez, K.M. Soehnlein, Brian Thorstenson

• 
• 
• 
• 

Tony Kushner’s groundbreaking epic play Angels in America unabashedly showed gay men as heroes. Prior Walter, sick with AIDS, wrestles with an angel. The ex-drag queen Belize works as a nurse in a hospital where he spars with the dying, cruel Roy Cohn as he also administers care. The play’s structure alone is an argument for queerness: all of the straight men in power are played by women. Angels broke open how gayness could be portrayed onstage, and influenced entire generations of queer writers. The Bay Area Book Festival partners with Berkeley Repertory Theatre, where Angels is currently playing, to host a panel discussion with local writers on how Angels in America impacted LGBTQ literature.

Sponsored by Berkeley Repertory Theatre