Online: The Library for the Performing Arts Play Club

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Play Club is like a book club, but for plays! Whether you are familiar with the art of reading plays, or looking to expand your appreciation for dramatic literature, this book club is an opportunity to read plays you have been meaning to explore or have never considered reading before. Learn about new works, discover new playwrights, and make friends!

This group will read one playscript from the Library for the Performing Arts circulating collection every month, and then come together to discuss the work. We will read one scene from the play together and discuss the text in a book club discussion format.

Our first few meetings will be online, but keep an eye out for future meetings in person. This program is intended for adult patrons.

Angels in America by Tony Kushner - Monday, June 17, 2024

Angels in America: a Gay Fantasia on National Themes consists of two full-length plays, "Millennium Approaches" (Part 1) and "Perestroika," (Part 2). In both plays, Kushner tells the story of a handful of people trying to make sense of the world. Prior Walter is a man living with AIDS whose partner, Louis, has left him and become involved with Joe, an ex-Mormon and political conservative whose wife, Harper, is slowly having a nervous breakdown. These stories are contrasted with that of Roy Cohn (in a fictional re-creation of the infamous American conservative ideologue who died of AIDS in 1986) and his attempts to remain in the closet while trying to find some sort of personal salvation in his beliefs. Winner of two Tony Awards and the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. (From the publisher.)

Tony Kushner’s other plays include A Bright Room Called Day, Slavs!, Homebody/Kabul, the musical Caroline, or Change written with composer Jeanine Tesori, and more. Kushner has translated and adapted Bertolt Brecht's The Good Person of Szechwan and Mother Courage and Her Children, Pierre Corneille's The Illusion, and S.Y. Ansky's The Dybbuk. He wrote the screenplays for Mike Nichols’ film version of Angels In America, and Steven Spielberg’s films Munich, Lincoln, and the remake of West Side Story. 

We have a few copies of the play at the Library for the Performing Arts, but if you are looking for additional copies, the Drama Book Shop has graciously set aside copies of the play at a discounted price of 10% off for Play Club attendees. (While supplies last.)

Please visit the Drama Book Shop to purchase your copy.

ASSISTIVE LISTENING AND ASL | ASL interpretation and real-time (CART) captioning available upon request. Please submit your request at least two weeks in advance by emailing accessibility@nypl.org.