By Erin Randolph erin@dmcityview.com

StageWest has to figure out how to get an angel in the Stoner Studio Theater. The theater company's season opener, "Angels in America Part 1: The Millennium Approaches," is an enormous undertaking for a community theater troupe. But StageWest has never been one to shy away from a challenge.

Though the staging of the play is simple, it's difficult in its text and it's difficult in its technical aspects, says director Todd Buchacker. But when the magic happens, it's pretty big.

"Angels in America" is really two full-length plays. "Part 1: Millennium Approaches" won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for drama. It takes place during the Reagan Administration, when the AIDS epidemic was still a quiet disease. The play explores the sexual, racial, religious, political and social issues the country was confronted with in the mid-'80s. It opens in the Civic Center's Stoner Studio Theater on Friday and continues Wednesdays through Sundays through Oct. 30.

One of the main characters, Prior, is a 30-year-old man who discovers he has AIDS. Throughout the course of the play, he deals with his syndrome and also with his relationship with his lover, Louis, says Dean Krouch, the actor playing the role.

"Prior is dealing with AIDS and he's dealing with it at a time when it's such a new disease," Krouch says. "Now we know what AIDS is and how it can be controlled, and now people can live for years with AIDS. There's still so many people, I believe, who don't know what the gay culture or gay counterculture went through in the mid-'80s when this disease was unknown, unrecognized and a huge stigma."

And although the play is more than 10 years old and it takes place about 20 years ago, it's remained relevant to audiences.

"Really it is about humankind and our response to tragedy," Buchacker says. "It's about race, it's about prejudice, it's about forgiveness. I think all of those things are always timely. Perhaps one of the reasons this has been hailed as one of the top 10 plays of the last century by many, many critics and theatergoers is because it stands the test of time. It's one of those plays that will always be relevant in one way, shape or form."

Stage notes

Though an extension was announced for "Chicago" at the Des Moines Playhouse, the rights were rescinded and it closed Oct. 2 as one of the Top 5 Playhouse hits... With the production of "Dr. Dolittle" closing before its scheduled stop at the Civic Center, the Des Moines Playhouse has received calls looking for a substitute. "Pippi Longstocking" plays in the Kate Goldman Children's Theatre through Oct. 23. CV

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