As with all great art, we can’t forget the predecessors that paved the way for great writing, powerful performances and risks on the stage. 25 years ago, that happened with Tony Kushner’s seven-hour masterpiece Angels in America. 

It captured the peak of the AIDS epidemic in the mid-1980s and showed an intimate portrait of gay life, religion, politics, and how those all collide. The play was then adapted for the small screen in 2003 on HBO. 

Slate talked to some of the major players behind both creations for an oral history of how it all came to be. We talk to Slate’s Dan Kois about that history.