Tony Kushner was born in New York City, Manhattan, New York in 1956. He was raised in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Both of his parents were musicians, and they encouraged him to follow his dreams seeing that he took interest in theatre at a young age. He's Jewish and practices the gay lifestyle. He was educated at both Columbia University and New York University. He received degrees in medieval studies and in theatre. He's currently living in New York City.
             Kushner started writing his plays in the early 1980s in and with a group he founded himself for theatre. He writes his plays with the intent that they are part of a political movement. He addresses moral responsibility in times of repressed political issues. Addressing crowds that are open to change and progress is what Kushner enjoys most.
             His first known play is La Fin de la Baleine: An Opera for the Apocalypse. That was written in 1982. A Bright Room Called Day was his first major play, which had its opening in 1985. It draws compares Germany in the 1930s to the United States in the 1980s. It was performed in various regional theatres across America. Kushner has written other plays as well, such as Slavs! (Thinking Avout the Longstanding Problems of Virtue and Happiness), written in 1994. It is a short play that takes place in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and is about the USSR under the rule of former president Mikhail Gorbachev. It was performed in only two places; one was at the Actor's Theater of Louisville, Kentucky and the other in the New York Theater Workshop in New York City.
             Other plays are Millennium Approaches and Perestroika. They follow eight characters' lives over the span of six years, showing their feelings on homosexuality and the effects that HIV/AIDS virus has on their relationships. These two plays come together as a two–part, seven–hour epic drama that Kushner i
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