In an introduction to his newest book, Prof. James Fisher describes playwright Tony Kushner as an artist who communicates "the joys and sufferings of existence, [who] articulates the struggle to survive what cannot be survived, and [who develops] strategies to move forward into an unknown and often frightening future."
Kushner, best known for his now-canonical drama Angels in America, has widened the gamut of his artistic vision greatly since his debut in the mid 1990s. Since the debut of Angels in 1991, Fisher has been following Kushner’s works with both admiration and inspiration; Fisher’s newest book Tony Kushner: New Essays on the Art and Politics of the Plays, is a deep and moving reflection of Kushner’s career and the social changes that it has wrought both within and outside America’s ever-widening borders.
Growing up in Long Branch, NJ, Fisher became fascinated with the human capacity to communicate profound truths. His interest in human dialogue was what eventually brought him to the dynamic world of the stage.
Fisher obtained undergraduate degrees from Monmouth College in both speech and drama, and went on to study theater at the University of North Carolina, where he specialized in directing. In 1978, Fisher was drawn deeper into the country, as he trekked west to Crawfordsville to begin his career at Wabash. Aside from his fulfilling dedication to teaching, Fisher has never stopped his critical questioning of the nature of theater in his growing body of drama scholarship.
Fisher was initially drawn to Kushner’s work simply as a means to enhance the classroom experience, to work with students on a contemporary figure to whom they could relate.
"The whole Kushner interest started out as an idea to work with students," Fisher said. "What I like most about my job is bringing interested students to projects they care about. I’ve always thought that the primary purpose of scholarship is an enhancement of teaching."
Kushner came to Wabash in 1995 to talk about his work. At that time his play Angels in America had gained a considerable amount of critical recognition, and it was known around campus that Wabash’s own theater department would put on the show the year following Kushner’s visit.
As an openly gay dramatist, with a play that brought the current issue of homosexual intolerance to the stage, it was inevitable that Kushner’s artistic vision brought to the Wabash campus ruffled some feathers.
"Most of the controversy on campus was the production of Kushner’s play," Fisher recalled. "His visit and subsequent talks on campus may have left some people disturbed, but it was the production of his play that seemed to be the real source of heated debate at that time."
Despite controversy, the Wabash theater department did produce the two-part epic Angels in America, and it became one of the most memorable theatrical events in all of Wabash history.
"Kushner is definitely a post-modernist in that he comments on the disintegration of old certainties. He’s trying to do a hard thing […] to see what wreckage of the past we can carry into the future," Fisher said. "It takes a lot for a play to be famous these days. The fact that Kushner has gained so much popularity through the medium of drama speaks to the quality and care that he puts into his expression both on and off the stage."
Fisher’s classroom interest in Kushner, and his personal meeting with the artist spilled over into his academic career. In 2002 Fisher published his first book on Kushner, The Theater of Tony Kushner; Living Past Hope. In this work, Fisher probes Kushner’s influences, both literary and political, that have worked together to create such powerful works of art.
"To find an American dramatist of equal talent, I think one may have to reach as far back as Tennessee Williams. Playwrights today are more focused and narrow, centering their plays on the multiple manifestations of a single theme. In both Williams and Kushner, the audience is bombarded with an entire spectrum of differing themes that take much more than a single viewing or reading to unpack and understand."
For this second published work on Kushner, Fisher collaborated with a number of other scholars, one of whom is former Wabash English professor Bert Stern, to bring Kushner’s lesser known works to the forefront of academia.
"When I began to look at Kushner’s other works I was bowled over by his incredible range. Most of his plays are, in their own way, as interesting as Angels," Fisher said. "In this book there is a mixture of new and experienced scholars, and I’m glad to have that kind of mixed experience and perspective in this book. The original plan was to have two different academic insights on each of Kushner’s other plays, but in the end it didn’t happen exactly that way."
Tony Kushner: New Essays on the Art and Politics of the Plays hit the press this summer, but this hasn’t slowed Fisher’s academic vigor. Soon, Fisher will be releasing a work two years in the making, The Historical Dictionary of the American Theatre: Modernism, 1880-1930. In this dictionary there will be over 1400 entries, all of which are written by Prof. Fisher and his co-author, Elicia Hardison Londré, from New York.
Above it all, Fisher proclaims that it is his fierce dedication to the life of the classroom that bolsters his insightful scholarship.
"Tony just hit 50," Fisher said, "which means, if were lucky, we’ll get another quarter century of work from him. Too often, playwrights have long passed into their graves before their works are unlocked through close attention. I want to bring students into Kushner’s vision now so that it makes a larger impact on the future."