Adaptation: From Stage to Screen
A Screening and Discussion of Angels in America, Episode 1

ADMISSION & CAMPUS ACCESS:
Admission is free. Reservations are required. Campus access is limited to registered guests and USC students, staff, and faculty with current USC ID.

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DESCRIPTION:
First performed in 1991, Tony Kushner’s Angels in America explored AIDS, homophobia, race, religion, and more. The USC School of Dramatic Arts will celebrate the legacy of Kushner’s masterpiece with performances from April 18–27 and several related events. 

In 2003, HBO adapted Angels in America into an Emmy Award–winning miniseries directed by Mike Nichols and featuring a star-studded cast including Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, Jeffrey Wright, and Emma Thompson. Following a screening of the first episode, “Millennium Approaches - Bad News,” USC professor Brighde Mullins will moderate a conversation about the creative process of translating beloved plays into stories for the screen. Guests will include American screenwriter Virgil Williams (The Piano Lesson) and screenwriter, novelist, and USC professor Howard Rodman.

Bios:

Brighde Mullins is a professor of English at USC. Her awards include a Guggenhem Fellowship (2012), United States Artists Fellowship in Literature (2010), Pinter Review Gold Medal (2003), the Whiting Foundation Award for Playwriting (2001), the Will Glickman Award for Playwriting (2001), a Pushcart Prize nomination for her poetry (2003), and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Playwriting (1991). Her plays have been produced in New York, London, San Francisco, Los Angeles. She holds an MFA in Playwriting from the Yale School of Drama and an MFA in Poetry from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

Howard Rodman is a professor at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. He is the a past president of the Writers Guild of America West, professor and former chair of the writing division at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, and an artistic director of the Sundance Institute Screenwriting Labs. In 2021, he was elected a Governor of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and is now a vice president of the Academy. As a screenwriter, his films include Savage Grace, starring Julianne Moore and Eddie Redmayne; and August, with Josh Hartnett, Rip Torn, and David Bowie—both of which had their U.S. premieres at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Rodman’s screenplay for Savage Grace was nominated for a Spirit Award in the Best Screenplay category. His adaptations of Jim Thompson, David Goodis, et. al., for Showtime’s Fallen Angels anthology series were directed by Steven Soderbergh and Tom Cruise.

Virgil Williams is a graduate of USC and an Oscar-nominated screenwriter who most recently adapted August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson for Netflix, which will be released in November of this year. He co-wrote the script with Malcolm Washington, who is also making his feature-film directorial debut. Samuel L. Jackson, John David Washington, Danielle Deadwyler, Corey Hawkins, and Ray Fisher starred. Denzel Washington and Todd Black produced. Virgil previously adapted Pulitzer Prize winner Dana Canedy’s best-selling memoir A Journal for Jordan, which was directed by Denzel Washington and starred Michael B. Jordan. Virgil's first big-screen adaptation, Netflix’s Mudbound, netted him Oscar, Critics Choice, Writers Guild, NAACP Image and USC Scripter Award nominations alongside co-writer and director Dee Rees for their extraordinary work adapting Hillary Jordan’s novel.

Related events:

Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches
A USC School of Dramatic Arts Production
Friday, April 18, through Sunday, April 27, 2025
Sanctuary Theatre
For more information, click HERE

Angels in America: The Making of a Masterpiece 
A Conversation with Tony Kushner and Oskar Eustis
Wednesday, April 23, 2025, at 6 p.m.
Sanctuary Theatre
For more information, click HERE

Presented by USC Visions and Voices. Organized by the USC School of Dramatic Arts.