Open auditions welcome students and community members for a bold, ensemble-driven production of Kushner’s acclaimed play
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This fall, the Moorpark College Theatre Arts Department will present Angels in America: Part One — Millennium Approaches, Tony Kushner’s landmark play exploring politics, identity and the AIDS crisis in 1980s America. Auditions will be held August 12-14 at the Moorpark College Performing Arts Center.
The production calls for a large, versatile cast and offers a range of challenging roles that span gender, race, and age. All lead roles will likely be double cast, and auditions are open to Moorpark College students and the wider community. Rehearsals begin August 18, with evening rehearsals held Monday through Thursday.
Regarded as a definitive theatrical work on the AIDS crisis, Angels in America is set in 1980s New York and follows Prior, a gay man diagnosed with AIDS, whose partner Louis leaves him and begins a relationship with a married man. As Prior’s illness progresses, an angel appears and names him a prophet. The cast includes an Orthodox rabbi, an imaginary travel agent, a medieval farmer, an Inuk (a person of Inuit heritage) and historical figures Roy Cohn and Ethel Rosenberg. The work explores otherness, queerness, faith, addiction, and mortality.
The play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Tony Award for Best Play and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play in 1993.
“I was planning on producing Angels in America right before the COVID-19 pandemic hit,” said Suzanne Fagan, director. “Now I think it is extremely interesting to do the play after many of us lived through that time since many students were not around during the AIDS pandemic. I am very excited to explore this play with them, many of whom identify with the LGBTQ+ community or as an ally.”
Auditions will take place at the Moorpark College Performing Arts Center on Tuesday, August 12, from 3:30–6:00 p.m. and Wednesday, August 13, from 6:00–9:00 p.m., with callbacks on Thursday, August 14, from 3:30–6:00 p.m. Those cast must enroll in a 3-unit Theatre Production: Performance course (THA M10A–D). For full audition details, visit moorparkcollege.edu/theatre-arts/auditions-and-rehearsals.