Suzan-Lori Parks * Excellence

by Sandy | Nov 8, 2008 | Arts, Entertainment and Music, Books, Creativity, Film, Theater, Writers

Suzan-Lori Parks is an author, award winning playwright and screenwriter. I was going to categorize her as an “over achiever”. But, that’s probably a disservice – she is just doing what she has to do. Doing what matters to her – with excellence.

She won her 2002 Pultitzer Prize for the play “Topdog/Underdog”. I saw this in San Francisco a few years ago and enjoyed this clever, funny and explosive story about 2 brothers – “Lincoln” and “Booth”. You might imagine how it ends, but, it will still shock you.
Like in the Akira Kurosawa’s film “Rashomon” , where the same scenario is told from different points of view, this play illustrates how 2 boys in the same family can remember differently and be affected differently by the same traumatic event. Their perceptions colored their actions and attributed to the way they chose to lead their lives.
(The NYC Public Theater production had Jeffrey Wright and Don Cheadle as the siblings – you can just imagine the power of that duo.)

Ms Parks had an idea to write a play for every day of the year, the result is “365 Days, 365 Plays“ which she wrote between 2002 – 2003. Starting in 2006, they were presented at theaters, coffee houses and auditoriums across the country. Some venues could do a few of the plays, some as short as one page , and other locations could only stage one. However, all were seen before the end of 2007, just as she envisioned.