13 the television of the creators ’ childhoods . Even if they were making fun of the corny nature of The Twilight Zone , they felt there was value in the message of breaking off from society as it was valued by say , their parents . The humor , satirical references , and willingness to embrace whatever the “ other ” throws at them epitomized the culture of WOW , and the company continues to embrace women ’ s stories and push the boundaries of queer drama in their own unique , wonderfully intimate way . Angels in America ( 1993 ) 9
Tony Kushner ’ s widely-regarded masterpiece Angels in America : A Gay Fantasia on National Themes represents an amalgamation of years of conflict , creative stifling , and muchneeded expression in a complex-yet-intimate setting of New York City during the height of the AIDS epidemic , which swept the nation in the late 1980s and early 1990s but deeply affected the personal lives of an incredible number of queer individuals in a devastating way that no other recent event could touch ( besides , perhaps , on the opposite side of the coin the passage of national laws permitting same-sex marriage in June 2015 ). 10
Kushner was born in New York in 1956 and raised in both New York and then Louisiana , where his dissatisfied ex-musician parents moved in order to work in the family lumber business . His tumultuous childhood was the mostly the result of his parents ’ mistreating and general dissatisfaction with their lives . As an adolescent , Kushner was subject to conversion therapy when his father suspected that he might be gay , and in 1969 his mother was diagnosed with cancer , which ended her careers as both a musician and an actress despite her initial recovery ( She later died when the cancer relapsed over twenty years later in 1991 , in between the writing of Pts . 1 and 2 of Angels ). Kushner moved back to New York to attend Columbia
9 Christopher Bram . 2012 . Eminent Outlaws : The Gay Writers Who Changed America . New York : Twelve . 261-276 .
Adam Liptak . 2015 . “ Supreme Court Makes Same-Sex Marriage a Right Nationwide .” New
10
York : The New York Times .