'Angels' to grace CSULB Studio Theatre

By Chan Tran
Photos by Caroline LImuti
Daily Forty-Niner

The Studio Theatre at Cal State Long Beach will be occupied by angels for the next three weeks as the University Players present Tony Kushner's "Angels In America, Part 1; Millennium Approaches," also known as "a gay fantasia on national themes."

"Part 1," which starts Friday and runs until Dec. 2 followed by "Angels In America, Part 2; Perestroika," scheduled for April 6 to 28, 2001, deals with a breakdown of relationships in America during the Ronald Reagan era and in the shadow of the AIDS.

"Angels In America" sweeps the audience across the map of the world and the human heart, covering aspects of religion, sex and community. Hope is given a voice against the struggle to stay humane during the AIDS epidemic. The play examines the basic fundamentals of death, loyalty and humanity for all sexual and ethnic identities.

For director Ashley Carr, who has directed similar gay-themed shows "The Normal Heart," "Torch Song Trilogy" and "Jeffery," the latest production will provide a great challenge for his actors.

"There are only eight actors in the cast playing 20 different roles," Carr said. "Some of them are gender bending."

The play is about relationships and their breakdowns, he said.

"Part 1 deals with the repressive Reagan era, which placed AIDS in the closet," Carr said. "Everybody was moving toward freedom and human rights, but when AIDS came along the minorities moved back into their own corners."

Ten years after its first staging and since opening in New York in 1993, "Angels" has won two Tony awards ó first for Part 1 and again for Part 2 ó a Pulitzer Prize award, the New York Critics award and the L.A. Critics award among others.

The production also reflects a more personal direction for Carr than his previous plays.

"I've lost many friends to AIDS," Carr said. "We must constantly be aware of AIDS and I think people need to take a look at greater acceptance and assimilation."

For a show that is usually staged back-to-back on separate nights, the four-month separation is a different approach. Regardless of the four-month gap, Carr said the productions are better because of it, perhaps lessening the heavy load of the story.

"Both of the plays stand on their own," he said. "In fact, it might be better to see one part and then have little bit of time before seeing the second."

The same cast will perform in Part 2, which is scheduled to rehearse in February.

Despite having directed other related shows, Carr views his latest endeavor as a bold move forward that promises to be fulfilling.

"It's the most incredible of all the [gay-theme] plays I've done ó an epic. The ideas go much deeper," he said. "There's an intelligence that pervades in all the ideas."

The show has adult language, simulated sex scenes, frontal nudity for people who are concerned with the content.

Full-body emotion is one of the acting qualities of Danielle Bearden-Mead and Jack Griguoli, two cast memebers from "Angels in America, Part One," which opens Friday.