New York Times op-ed writer Frank Rich, Angels in America playwright Tony Kushner and Sacramento Bee theater critic Marcus Crowder are due on campus March 19 to discuss the arts, entertainment and politics.

• Forum@MC -- 4 p.m., Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, with Rich and Crowder in a discussion titled "The Critic's Imagination, the Critic's Responsibility," moderated by Peter Lichtenfels, chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance. Free and open to the public.
• Provocations Series -- 8 p.m., Jack-son Hall, with Rich and Kushner presenting "The Theater of Politics, the Politics of Theater." Tickets available through the center's box office.

Rich writes on the intersection of culture and news, and previously was a Times theater critic. His latest book, The Greatest Story Ever Sold, is described in a Mondavi Center news release as a hard-hitting indictment of the Bush administration.

Kushner received the Pulitzer Prize for Angels in America, an epic about the AIDS crisis during the mid-1980s. Openly gay and socialist, Kushner makes no apologies for his agenda, and has stated that he intends his plays to be part of a greater political movement, with an overarching theme of moral responsibility during politically repressive times.