CLARKSVILLE, TN – Nearly three decades after its Broadway premiere, the drama hailed by Newsweek as “the most ambitious American play of our time” is coming to Clarksville’s oldest professional theatre.
Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches, opens at the Roxy Regional Theatre on Friday, March 11, at 8 p.m. In keeping with the theatre’s pay-what-you-can opening night tradition, all tickets not pre-sold at the regular price will go on sale at 7:30 p.m. that evening for a $5 minimum donation.
In the first part of Tony Kushner’s Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning epic masterpiece, New Yorkers grapple with the harsh reality of the HIV/AIDS epidemic during the conservative Reagan administration of the 1980s.
Roxy Regional Theatre Executive Director Ryan Bowie plays Prior Walter, a 30-year-old New Yorker whose lover Louis, played by Calvin Malone, abandons him when he falls ill with AIDS. Transcendent forces – visions and angels – help transform Prior from a man dying of AIDS to a man living with AIDS.
“The relevance and message of Angels in America still rings true today, 25 years later, and that is one of the reasons I am so passionate about bringing this production to our stage in Season 39,” says Bowie, who is also directing the production. “As a homosexual man, the fear of HIV and AIDS is ingrained in our community. But deep down, no matter the circumstance, everyone deals with the fear of death and despair. Angels in America reminds us we can find hope and the reason to live again by allowing ourselves to discuss our differences and find a common voice.”
The cast also features Matthew Combs and Sara Anderson as Joe and Harper Pitt, a young Mormon couple facing addiction and closeted homosexuality; Jama Bowen as Joe’s mother Hannah; Darren V. Michael as the infamous McCarthy-ite lawyer Roy M. Cohn; David Ridley as drag queen-turned-nurse Belize; and Emily Rourke as the Angel.
Produced in part by Ted and David Jones, with additional funding support provided by Brandon & Amanda Pitt, Angels in America is presented through special arrangement with Broadway Play Publishing Inc., www.broadwayplaypub.com.
Performances run March 11 through March 26 on Thursdays at 7 p.m. and Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., with 2 p.m. matinees on Saturday, March 19 and 26.
Please note: This production contains strong language, sexual content and adult situations which may not be suitable for all audiences.
Tickets are $30 (adults) and $15 (10 and under) and may be reserved online at www.roxyregionaltheatre.org, by phone at (931) 645-7699, or at the theatre during regular box office hours.
The Roxy Regional Theatre is at 100 Franklin St.