Tony Kushner papers, 1920, 1961-2018

Tony Kushner (b. 1956) is an American author, playwright, and screenwriter. He received a Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Angels in America: Millennium Approaches in 1993. The papers include address books, awards, certificates, correspondence, drafts and revisions, notebooks and notes, outlines, photographs, posters, press clippings, programs, production materials, promotional materials, proofs, props, research materials, scores, screenplays, scripts, speeches, and translations.

The collection includes a wealth of material related to Kushner's stage works. The collection includes materials related not only to Kushner's best-known work, but also to his early work and his student work. These materials include correspondence, drafts and revisions, notes and notebooks, outlines, production files, programs, promotional materials, and research files. For early works, programs and promotional materials were often designed by Kushner, and his design work is included in his files.

The collection also includes files related to Kushner's work in film and television. These works include Angels in America for HBO, Munich, Lincoln, and Fences. The papers include related materials such as correspondence, outlines, drafts, screenplays, revisions, and research materials, as well as posters, press clippings, promotional materials, and reviews. There is also material related to three works that were ultimately unproduced: Grim(m), The Illusion, and The Pushcart Wars. These materials include film treatments, drafts, outlines, manuscript pages, typescript pages, comments, and research.

There are records related to some of Kushner's book projects in the collection. There projects include The Art of Maurice Sendak: 1980 to the Present (2003), Brundibar (2003), Thinking About the Longstanding Problems of Virtue: Essays, A Play, Two Poems and a Prayer (1995), and Wrestling with Zion: Progressive Jewish-American Responses to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (2003), edited with Alisa Solomon. For these projects, the files include corrections, correspondence, galleys, manuscripts, promotional materials, proofs, notes, typescripts, and reviews.

Kushner's other writing work is also represented in the collection. The collection includes materials related to Kushner's academic writing, articles, essays, introductions to books, and speeches. These files include drafts, proofs, publications, notes, and other materials.

Kushner also kept correspondence files. There is correspondence with the files for specific projects and professional files throughout the collection. There are also correspondence files that contain cards, letters, and correspondence received by Kushner; however, these were not organized into a filing system and were filed in small groups in various mailing envelopes. Most general correspondence is gathered in small groups that are similar by date; notes on letters from specific individuals were added to the finding aid based on notes from the seller's inventory. There are no outgoing correspondence files, and the collection does not include electronic mail files at this time.

Professional Files includes files related to awards, business, events, honorary degrees, organizations, professional activities, and research files. In addition, there are photographs, articles and other press related to Kushner's professional activities.

There are a small number of personal and biographical files in the collection. These files include address books, class notes, contact lists, family materials, transcripts, and yearbooks, as well as files with art, articles, clippings, programs, and other personal records.

There is a small amount of material by others in the collection. These manuscripts and other materials are filed in Series V: Material by Others.

The collection includes a small amount of analog and digital media as noted in the container list. This material includes photographs and video related to auditions, productions, events, and interviews. This material is not fully processed at this time.

There are several items that still require permanent housing: these are listed at the end of the container list at this time. These include two oversized props and several glass awards that did not originally have their own cases.