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Video Closed Captions

Sara-Ashley Bischoff '09:
Hi, I'm Sara-Ashley Bischoff, and I'm directing Angels in America.

Sara-Ashley Bischoff '09:
It takes place in New York in the 1980s at a time when

Sara-Ashley Bischoff '09:
everything was shifting. Everything was uncertain.

Sara-Ashley Bischoff '09:
And there was a lot of change, a lot of which was negative

Sara-Ashley Bischoff '09:
change going on in the world.

Sara-Ashley Bischoff '09:
We've experienced a huge upheaval in American society.

Sara-Ashley Bischoff '09:
We're going through it now: political, economic.

Sara-Ashley Bischoff '09:
In a lot of ways, a lot of things are falling apart.

Sara-Ashley Bischoff '09:
This play is really important because,

Sara-Ashley Bischoff '09:
what is more important for an

Sara-Ashley Bischoff '09:
audience than to come in and be able to actually see how it is

Sara-Ashley Bischoff '09:
relevant to their lives, and to be able to sit back and

Sara-Ashley Bischoff '09:
watch the play and reflect.

Pete Ploszek '09:
Ah...Pete Ploszek. I'm a senior here at Princeton

Pete Ploszek '09:
in the history department.

Pete Ploszek '09:
This play is about people of the entire spectrum.

Pete Ploszek '09:
From liberal to conservative, black, white,

Pete Ploszek '09:
every type of person and how they think and how they interact

Pete Ploszek '09:
with each other. How they affected each other's lives

Pete Ploszek '09:
at a time in american history where people's lives

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were changing every hour, every day.

Pete Ploszek '09:
And so, I think today we see ourselves in a similar

Pete Ploszek '09:
situation. We see ourselves on the

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precipice of great change, or at least the need for change

Pete Ploszek '09:
that we can in some way impact.

Jordan Kisner '09:
It's one of the greatest plays

Jordan Kisner '09:
written in the 20th century, and we're doing it here.

Chris Ghaffari '12:
It's a huge conglomeration of things,

Chris Ghaffari '12:
which is amazing in itself.

Chris Ghaffari '12:
That Kushner is able to bring in politics, religion,

Chris Ghaffari '12:
race, sexuality -- just really being human -- all in one play.

Chris Ghaffari '12:
In that, its genius is that it has an incredible knowledge of

Chris Ghaffari '12:
all those things and it explores them in great detail.

Jordan Kisner '09:
Hi.

Casey Ford Alexander '10:
(Off-Camera): What's your name?

Jordan Kisner '09:
Jordan Kisner.

Jordan Kisner '09:
I play Harper Pitt, who is a Mormon housewife who

Jordan Kisner '09:
has been sort of displaced from Utah and is living in Brooklyn

Jordan Kisner '09:
with her husband Joe.

Jordan Kisner '09:
And she struggles with an overactive imagination and a

Jordan Kisner '09:
Valium addiction.

Jordan Kisner '09:
The set. The set's really interesting.

Jordan Kisner '09:
The set was part of an artistic choice to sort of keep the

Jordan Kisner '09:
production minimal and abstract, to make it very much about just

Jordan Kisner '09:
the characters interacting in the space.

Jordan Kisner '09:
It's just sort of three tiers and minimal furniture,

Jordan Kisner '09:
and very few props and that can be hard for someone like me.

Jordan Kisner '09:
I like...when I'm acting, I like having a lot of things

Jordan Kisner '09:
to sort of interact with physically.

Jordan Kisner '09:
But you feel a little bit naked when you're out there on the

Jordan Kisner '09:
stage all by yourself.

Jordan Kisner '09:
But it's great. It really allows you to explore

Jordan Kisner '09:
physical life with your body, and let that sort of be the

Jordan Kisner '09:
focus and let the interaction between the characters

Jordan Kisner '09:
emotionally take the focus.

Sara-Ashley Bischoff '09:
There are a lot of pieces in

Sara-Ashley Bischoff '09:
place for a great work.

Sara-Ashley Bischoff '09:
Kushner's writing in itself will make people think and feel.