Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and liberal political activist Tony Kushner spoke at Finney Chapel last night to conclude Oberlin’s 2005 Convocation Series. His program included a short reading of his work, a discussion with Provost Clayton Koppes and Associate Professor of Theater Matthew Wright about his career and a question and answer session with the audience.

Kushner, introduced by Koppes as “the most highly acclaimed playwright of our generation,” is most well-known for his play Angels in America, an epic set during the late 1980s AIDS epidemic dealing with such controversial issues as gender, sexuality and religion. In addition, he is accomplished as a writer of poetry, screenplays and musical theater.

The first piece Kushner read for the packed house was called “Prayer for New York,” a short play he wrote in response to the attack on the World Trade Center, focusing on a New York Jewish lawyer writing to God on behalf of the city and his hysterical mother. There was comedy in the piece, rare in work associated with the Sept. 11 attacks, demonstrated by the mother’s panic-stricken prayer in which she implores God to protect New York “because you made it in your image.” The mood, however, does take a more dramatic and poignant tone when the lawyer says, “We pray for peace, justice and understanding...whether you are there or not.”

The second piece was an impassioned speech he recited to students at Cooper Union in October of 2002. It was a speech calling for political mobilization against the Bush administration in the months leading up to the war on Iraq, and reflective of Kushner’s belief that Americans were, in fact, capable of creating a movement that could have an impact on policymaking.

“Together, in some sort of concert...the world will change,” Kushner said. “Show up at meetings and demonstrations and rallies. Act, organize, assemble, exist...continue. Do more than you have ever done.”

The third piece Kushner shared was a light-hearted poem, titled “Stars,” that was a part of a children’s play he wrote.

The first question of the discussion portion of the program came from Wright, who asked for insight into Kushner’s creative process.

“I read a few newspapers every day,” Kushner said. “I talk to people and look at things. I keep notebooks with me for ideas for plays. When there’s an idea I really like, I let it have a notebook of its own, and when the idea survives for more than three years I start to take it seriously.

“Then I start to make up characters. You know, I’m 48 years old and when I sit down to make up people I feel like this is not a grownup occupation. I feel like I’m sitting around talking to stuffed animals, you know, ‘Your name is Mr. Binkey and you live in a tree and you can do magic, but only on Thursdays.’”

Kushner continued, “I’ll start to write a scene and I’ll do it very quickly. Then I’ll take out a legal pad and begin to write the play in longhand. I don’t worry about whether it’s good or bad. As a writer, you just have to lose yourself so you can give yourself over to the people you’re making up.”

Koppes asked about Kushner’s tendency to write plays with highly political overtones.

“I think American drama is almost always political,” Kushner said. “There’s no way for it not to be. Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller is about the economic climate of the time; A Streetcar named Desire by Tennessee Williams deals with gender; A Long Day’s Journey Into Night by Eugene O’Neill focuses on poverty and the immigrant experience.

“Some people are naturally drawn to politics, others are drawn to human relationships, or psychology, philosophy, theology...but you can’t have one of these things without the other.”

Kushner said, “I write about politics because that’s what I do. I personally think you should always know who your character is going to vote for, but that’s one way. It’s not the only way.”

A final question from Koppes addressed whether Kushner wished to be associated as a “gay writer.”

“I do,” Kushner said, “and a Jewish writer and a socialist writer and an American writer...anything but a bad writer. I’m actually very into identity politics; I mean, how could I not be? I’m a gay Jew.”

For the question-and-answer installment, one student asked how members of the Oberlin community, as progressive people, could look at conservatives without dehumanizing them. Was there any way to discuss the behavior and temperaments of Republicans using adjectives other than “stupid?”

“It’s a filthy habit I just can’t stop because I’m so angry all the time,” said Kushner of his own tendency to write Republicans off using such words. “We do live in times that are polarized not because we’re calling each other names but because we want radically different things. We’re in a war right now, and the stakes have never been higher.

“Right now, I think it’s okay to scream ‘fire’ in a crowded room,” Kushner said, “because we need to do it.”