Editing Angels in America (section)

==Staging==
Kushner prefers that the theatricality be transparent. In his notes about staging, he writes: "The plays benefit from a pared-down style of presentation, with scenery kept to an evocative and informative minimum. [...] I recommend rapid scene shifts (no blackouts!), employing the cast as well as stagehands in shifting the scene. This must be an actor-driven event. [...] The moments of magic [...] are to be fully imagined and realized, as wonderful ''theatrical'' illusions—which means it's OK if the wires show, and maybe it's good that they do..."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kushner |first=Tony |url=http://archive.org/details/angelsinamericag0000kush |title=Angels in America : a gay fantasia on national themes |date=2013 |publisher=New York : Theatre Communications Group |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-1-55936-395-2}}</ref> Kushner is an admirer of [[Bertolt Brecht]], who practiced a style of theatrical production whereby audiences were often reminded that they were in a theatre. The choice to have "no blackouts" allows audiences to participate in the construction of a malleable theatrical world.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-06-17 |title=Ten Things You Might Not Know About Angels in America |url=https://www.arts.gov/stories/blog/2022/ten-things-you-might-not-know-about-angels-america |access-date=2024-11-15 |website=www.arts.gov |language=en}}</ref>

One of the many theatrical devices in ''Angels'' is that each of the eight main actors has one or several other minor roles in the play. For example, the actor playing the nurse, Emily, also plays the Angel, Sister Ella Chapter (a real estate agent), and a homeless woman. This [[dual role|doubling and tripling of roles]] encourages the audience to consider the elasticity of, for example, gender and sexual identities.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Function of Dual Roles in Tony Kushner's Angels in... {{!}} Bartleby |url=https://www.bartleby.com/essay/The-Function-of-Dual-Roles-in-Tony-P3M6ZFYVC |access-date=2024-11-15 |website=www.bartleby.com}}</ref>