EVENT DETAILS

Tony Kushner’s Angels: A Presentation by Professor Jean E.Howard on December 2nd

Jean E. Howard,English and Drama Professor  will speak to the CUCDC at a dinner on Thursday evening  December 2 at the China Garden Restaurant in Rosslyn.

Howard revisits Tony Kushner’s (CC’78) epic two-part Pulitzer Prize winning play Angels in America two decades after its first publication and suggests that as well as being a play about the AIDS crisis of the late ’90s, it also is about history, particularly the intertwined histories of Mormons and Jews in America.

Examining Kushner’s playful but intricate engagement with the many angels that are mentioned in his drama, she will show how they are the instruments for his examination of what America has been and might be.

Angels in America won back to back Tony Awards and the London Drama Critics Circle Award. Mike Nichols directed a very well received mini-series on HBO and it has also been performed as an opera in both English and German. Despite the controversy that surrounded the original productions, Angels in America is now being revived in New York, and on campuses and regional theaters in the heartland. It has become an important part of mainstream American theater.

Date:  Thursday December 2, 2010

Time:   7:00 pm-9:00 pm Dinner service will begin at 7:00 pm

Venue: The China Garden Restaurant  1100 Wilson Boulevard (Mall Level) Rosslyn, VA  A short walk from the Rosslyn Metro,
Free Parking in the basement garage after 6PM

Price: $25 a person (includes a banquet dinner, Chinese tea, tax and gratuity).

Deadline for registration is Wednesday December 1st. To register:

https://web.memberclicks.com/mc/quickForm/viewForm.do?orgId=cucdc&formId=90274

Jean E. Howard is George Delacorte Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University where she teaches Renaissance Literature, Feminist Studies, and Literary Theory. 

A noted Shakespearean Scholar her books include Shakespeare’s Art of Orchestration: Stage Technique and Audience Response (1984); The Stage and Social Struggle in Early Modern England(1994) Engendering a Nation: A Feminist Account of Shakespeare’s English Histories (1997), co-written with Phyllis Rackin; and Theater of a City: The Places of London Comedy 1598-1642 (2007). The latter recently won the Barnard Hewitt Prize for the outstanding book of theater history for 2008. 

In addition, Professor Howard is one of the co-editors of The Norton Shakespeare and has edited seven collections of essays.  The recipient of Guggenheim, ACLS, NEH, and Huntington, Folger, and Newberry Library Fellowships, she has also been President of the Shakespeare Association of America and an active member of many committees of the Modern Language Association. 

As an administrator, Howard has served as a Trustee of Brown University, has chaired Columbia’s Institute for Research on Women and Gender, served as Columbia’s first Vice Provost for Diversity Initiatives, and currently is Chair of the Department of English and Comparative Literature. 

She is working on two books: a study of the plays of the contemporary feminist dramatist, Caryl Churchill, and a book on Renaissance tragedy.

Dinner Menu

Appetizers

Pan Fried Meat Dumplings

Sautéed Shrimp with House Dressing

Soup

Hot and Sour

Entrees

“Delicious Kingdom” Ribs

Sliced Lamb Sauté Hunan Style

String Beans Szechuan Style

Filet of Flounder with Vegetables

Scallops with Mixed Vegetables

House Fried Rice

Dessert

Banana Fritters

 The food will be prepared without MSG. Vegetarian alternatives will be available.