NY Observer > Tony Kushner http://www.observer.com/taxonomy/term/28992/feed Articles from Observer.com en Tony Kushner Wins $200,000 Prize http://www.observer.com/2008/arts-culture/tony-kushner-wins-200-000-prize

Playwright Tony Kushner has a big reason to smile this morning, as he's been named the first recipient of the ‘Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award,' aka the Mimi, which carries with it a $200K prize. The award, which was established earlier this year by The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, and which honors and promotes artistic achievement in the theater, will be presented at a ceremony on Tuesday, October 21, at 620 Loft & Garden at Rockefeller Center. Mr. Kushner will also then get his ‘The Mimi,' a statue designed by Tony Award-nominated scenic designer and architect David Rockwell.

More from the press release after the jump:  read more »

]]> http://www.observer.com/2008/arts-culture/tony-kushner-wins-200-000-prize#comments Theater Tony Kushner Wed, 17 Sep 2008 11:46:38 -0400 Hillary Frey 75408 at http://www.observer.com Morning Memo: Mills to Apprentice; Nixon Didn't Have Work Done http://www.observer.com/2008/morning-memo-6-23-08

Tony Kushner and his partner, writer Mark Harris, are headed to California for a marriage license. [Intelligencer]

Heather Mills has reportedly been invited to do Celebrity Apprentice because Donald Trump likes her. [P6]

New York Ranger-turned-Vogue intern Sean Avery attended R.E.M.'s concert at Madison Square Garden on Thursday wearing all black and a newsboy cap. A "spy" said, "he looked like he was straight out of a 1998 J.Lo. video." [P6]

Cynthia Nixon didn't have breast augmentation surgery as was reported by Page Six (and linked by Daily Transom) last week. She was at the hospital for a check-up following the removal of her breast cancer.  read more »

]]> http://www.observer.com/2008/morning-memo-6-23-08#comments Style Cynthia Nixon Heather Mills Peter Cook Richard Griffiths Sean Avery Tony Kushner Mon, 23 Jun 2008 07:08:32 -0400 Irina Aleksander 71038 at http://www.observer.com You Say DeLillo, I Say ... Writers' Claws Are Out at PEN Gala http://www.observer.com/2008/you-say-delillo-i-say-writers-claws-are-out-pen-gala

At around 7:45 p.m. on Monday, April 28, writer Carl Bernstein was mingling at the cocktail hour before the PEN Literary Awards at the Museum of Natural History, Coca Cola in hand, looking very healthy. “I ride a bike and listen to a lot of music,” he said. “I mostly listen to classical but also rock.  read more »

]]> http://www.observer.com/2008/you-say-delillo-i-say-writers-claws-are-out-pen-gala#comments Style Alex Kuczynski Don DeLillo Frank McCourt Gay Talese Michael Cunningham Nan Talese Norman Mailer Tina Brown Toni Morrison Tony Kushner Tue, 29 Apr 2008 20:02:25 -0400 Spencer Morgan 68550 at http://www.observer.com The Transom http://www.observer.com/node/52803 He's O.K., Everyone!  read more »]]> http://www.observer.com/node/52803#comments Style Mark Harris Martin Sheen Robin Williams Tony Kushner Sun, 15 Oct 2006 20:00:00 -0400 Observer Staff 52803 at http://www.observer.com The Transom http://www.observer.com/node/39579 He's O.K., Everyone!    read more »]]> http://www.observer.com/node/39579#comments Style Mark Harris Martin Sheen Robin Williams Tony Kushner Sun, 15 Oct 2006 20:00:00 -0400 Observer Staff 39579 at http://www.observer.com Un-Brechtian Business As Usual Lacks Meryl Streep's Courage http://www.observer.com/node/52652 A few words about the wayward production of Mother Courage and Her Children in the Park, starring Me  read more »]]> http://www.observer.com/node/52652#comments Arts & Culture George Wolfes Kevin Kline Meryl Streep Tony Kushner Sun, 10 Sep 2006 20:00:00 -0400 John Heilpern 52652 at http://www.observer.com Un-Brechtian Business As Usual Lacks Meryl Streep’s Courage http://www.observer.com/node/39387 A few words about the wayward production of Mother Courage and Her Children in the Park, starring Me  read more »]]> http://www.observer.com/node/39387#comments Arts & Culture Kevin Kline Meryl Streep Tony Kushner William Shakespeare Sun, 10 Sep 2006 20:00:00 -0400 John Heilpern 39387 at http://www.observer.com The Real Israel: Top General Calls His Broker Between War Councils http://www.observer.com/node/33478 One job I appointed myself to upon returning from Israel was that of trying to acquaint Americans, and especially American Jews, with a sense of Israel as a real country and not a dream state. Most American Jews have not been to Israel, and their views of the country are based on the same images I had before I went: Leon Uris's Exodus, the '67 War, kibbutzes, Moshe Dayan's eyepatch, Abba Eban's speeches, etc.

Tony Kushner tried to break the spell for me a few months back when he said that American Jews' idea of Israel was a "fantasy built on a delusion." The delusion was the lack of understanding that creating the country in the first place had involved ethnic cleansing in 1948 (all those Palestinian refugees), while the fantasy was the belief that Israel wasn't really a foreign country, but some kind of aching Jewish dream of a homeland and a refuge, forever in peril from the evil Arabs.

Now that I have seen what Kushner meant, two ways I've tried to correct the image as a journalist is to describe how militarized Israeli society is and how out of touch with Arabs the Israelis are, if they're not downright racist. Two problems that I would guess bedevil other nationalist countries. For Israel is a very nationalist place. Doesn't prize diversity.

This is all by way of introducing a link. It's become a minor scandal in Israel that on July 12, the day the war broke out following Hizbollah's lethal raid, the Israeli Defence Forces chief of staff, Gen. Dan Halutz, sold stock worth about $25,000. In other words, as war councils were being convened and Halutz was publicly vowing to take Lebanon 20 years back, he was also calling his broker to sell a portfolio. Halutz has confirmed the deal, but blasted the leak.

This incident should be laid side by side with New York Congressman Jerrold Nadler's statement that when the war broke out, he felt just as he felt in June 1967, that Israel was in a war for its very existence. Nadler's fear is widely shared in America. But the two facts show the difference between the real state of Israel and the fantasy state. In the real state, the top general so takes for granted the future existence of Israel that he has time to call up his broker during the outbreak of hostilities with a neighboring militia. In the fantasy state, an American congressman has a vision of a heroic homeland being smashed to bits by the Arabs. Americans need a reality check.]]> http://www.observer.com/node/33478#comments Abba Eban Israel Jerrold Nadler Tony Kushner Tue, 22 Aug 2006 12:14:11 -0400 Observer Staff 33478 at http://www.observer.com What Makes Political Theater Effective-Or Not http://www.observer.com/node/52513 The mortal danger of all the political theater I’ve seen this season is whether it preaches pointl  read more »]]> http://www.observer.com/node/52513#comments Arts & Culture David Hare Tim Robbins Tony Kushner Tony Kushners Sun, 06 Aug 2006 20:00:00 -0400 John Heilpern 52513 at http://www.observer.com What Makes Political Theater Effective—Or Not http://www.observer.com/node/39214 The mortal danger of all the political theater I’ve seen this season is whether it preaches po  read more »]]> http://www.observer.com/node/39214#comments Arts & Culture David Adjmi David Hare Tim Robbins Tony Kushner Sun, 06 Aug 2006 20:00:00 -0400 John Heilpern 39214 at http://www.observer.com