it means to be Black in America, Wilson is able to display a great deal of insight into the historical realities that African- Americans had to face.  This exploration allows the audience greater understanding into this section of American culture.  Wilson's work provides insight into African- American identity, a topic that is still discussed today and reflected upon in American society given recent events in Florida.

Kushner embarks on a very similar journey in his work.  Being homosexual in America was and is still a challenging notion to understand, similar to how being Black in America is still seeking to be fully understood.  Kushner wishes to bring the audience into the mindset of people who are gay in America and what it means to be fundamentally different than the norm.  In a world in which being gay was seen as a "choice," Kushner makes the argument that change and transformation are the only constants in American identity.  This results in both homosexual people learning how to adapt to change and transformation as well as American society doing the same.  The recent debate on gay marriage is one such reality of change and transformation for both gay people and the American social order that must integrate them into its fabric.  For Kushner, being able to evoke the nuanced condition of being homosexual in America brings complexity and depth to identity, something that challenges the caricatures and stereotypes of gay people that Kushner experienced and absorbed.  The drama accomplishes this, as one becomes engrossed in the contours and trajectory of homosexual identity in terms of being in the closet, outside of it, and recognizing where one's place is in a social setting that does not acknowledge one's identity.

Indeed, both works are focused on exploring identity of "the other" in American society.  In doing so, both works are focused on exploring how historical conditions of the past are relevant to ongoing issues of identity formation.  The end result of both works is that the audience recognizes that being African- American and homosexual are realities that are deep, rich, and layered with multiple meanings that repudiate any stereotype.

The super objectives of the characters in both dramas are similar because they struggle with how to construct their identity in a world that fails to give adequate guidance to do so. The overarching goal of both sets of characters is how to form identity in a setting where change and transformation is the only real absolute.

In Wilson's drama, the condition of slavery has passed.  In its place is an uncertain future in which African- Americans are confronted with a life of debt slavery in the South, coupled with intense discrimination as slavery's shadow.  At the same time, the Great Migration has made movement to the North a reality for many.  Yet, this does not have any guarantees for racism and lack of opportunity still exists.  The characters in the boarding house all confront this condition, seeking to understand their own identities in a world of change and transformation.  It is one in which identity is left to navigate for the individual to find "their song," as Bynum would put it.  The world in which they live is one where many have "forgotten their songs," and such reclamation is critical to their identities.  The drama focuses on how this "binding" to one's identity can happen in a world that offers little in way of guidance towards this goal.

This same super objective of identity formation is evident in Kushner's work.  While Wilson deals with the condition of African- Americans, Kushner seeks to articulate what it means to be homosexual and fundamentally different in America.  The social conditions in which Kushner's characters engage on their quest are strikingly similar to what confronts Wilson's characters.  The condition of AIDS in the gay community combined with the Conservative ethos in America of the 1980s have helped to coordinate a social condition in which identity has to come from within.  The reality of identity formation amidst change and transformation becomes part of what each character endures. External reality does not offer much in way of assistance as to how individuals should live their lives and what they should do.  For the characters in Kushner's drama, critical questions about how they construct their identity in such uncertainty defines them, similar to Wilson's guests in the boarding house.  Kushner's characters must learn how to find "their song" without the presence of "angels in America."  

Both works feature characters whose super objectives are similar.  In seeking to understand what their identity in social conditions that fail to give much in way of guidance, both works develop the voice of "the other" amidst change and transformation.

Simply put, I think that both works stress that theatre is one of the last artistic venues where complex notions of individual and social identity can be articulated in nuanced and intricate manners.  Both works address modern identity with very detailed and unique approaches.  The use of the theatre medium is important because it is not bound by camera cuts, focus group testing, and the ability to secure financing with profit motives attached.  Both works serve as testament to the idea that if one seeks thought and reflective displays of art, it is the theatre that one seeks as sanctuary.

In Wilson's work, the wide display of character who are in search of their identity is what defines the vision rendered on stage.  Wilson does not give any easy outs or reductive approaches in such a depiction.  Rather, he features individuals who are of the past (Bynum), part of the future (Zonia and Reuben), as well as characters who are in the present, most everyone else.  The key component as they remain in the boarding house is that they all struggle for identity.  Given the past condition of slavery and an uncertain future, Wilson's work depicts identity as a pursuit that takes them in different areas and in different arenas.  Theatre becomes the domain in which this complex tapestry of individual and social voyage becomes evident.  Wilson allows the stage medium to display that there are no easy answers, what Kushner would later say, "no angels in America, to provide instant guidance.  The stage embraces this complexity, and due to it, Wilson can present an image where the only clarity is the need for individuals to act in what they believe in at that moment in time.

Kushner's ideas of identity are much the same.  He displays the search for individual identity amidst the drive for consensus in America of the 1980s, the condition of being homosexual in such a time period, and how the fear of AIDS impacts the construction of self.  The theatre allows this construction to take place, filled with trials of God, emotional abandonment, and angels who like to repeat the personal pronoun.  In this venue, Kushner depicts characters who are immersed in the same struggle that Wilson depicts in his characters.  There is a search for identity and an uncertainty as to what this contains.  From varied backgrounds like Joe and Harper to Prior and Louis to Roy and Belize, Kushner uses the stage as a way to highlight their struggles to find identity in a modern setting where the path is far from clear.  While a cable televised version of the drama was made, it is in the complexity of the theatre where this struggle for identity is displayed in its most stark terms.

For both Kushner and Wilson, the theatre is where the struggle for identity takes place.  It provides a format where complexity can be embraced and reflection can take place.  These values have defined the theatre as fundamentally different than other mediums like television or cinema because of the embrace of complexity and divergence of thought.