Suzan-Lori Parks in Person

This collection of interviews offers unprecedented insight into the plays and creative works of Suzan-Lori Parks, as well as being an important commentary on contemporary theater and playwriting, from jazz and opera to politics and cultural memory. Suzan-Lori Parks in Person contains 18 interviews, some previously untranscribed or specially undertaken for this book, plus commentaries on her work by major directors and critics, including Liz Diamond, Richard Foreman, Bonnie Metzgar and Beth Schachter. These contributions combine to honor the first African American woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize in drama, and explore her ideas about theater, history, race, and gender. Material from a wide range of sources chronologically charts Parks's career from the 1990s to the present. This is a major collection with immediate relevance to students of American/African-American theater, literature and culture. Parks's engaging voice is brought to the fore, making the book essential for undergraduates as well as scholars.

Philip C. Kolin is the University Distinguished Professor in the College of Arts and Letters at The University of Southern Mississippi. He has published more than 40 books and 200 articles and is the editor of the Southern Quarterly. Harvey Young is an Associate Professor of Theatre at Northwestern University. His books include Theatre & Race (2013) and Embodying Black Experience (2010).

Table of Contents List of Illustrations Introduction PART I: Interviews Theater's Vibrant New Voice (1992) Patti Hartigan Is Playwright Suzan-Lori Parks the Voice of the Future? (1993) Erika Munk Suzan-Lori Parks (1994) Han Ong Alien Nation (1994) Michele Pearce Making History (1996) Tom Sellar For Posterior's Sake (1996) Una Chaudhuri Adrienne Kennedy (1996) Suzan-Lori Parks Interview with Suzan-Lori Parks (1996) Shelby Jiggetts Love and War Seen in Black and White (1997) Ronni Gordon Suzan-Lori Parks (1999) David Savran An Interview with Suzan-Lori Parks at Cal Arts (2000) Lisa Colletta A Better Mirror (2000) Kathy Sova Mythology, History, Family, Performance (2001) Rick DesRochers A Moment with...Suzan-Lori Parks, playwright (2003) John Marshall Interview with Suzan-Lori Parks and Bonnie Metzgar (2006) Joseph Roach It's an Oberammergau Thing (2007) Kevin J. Wetmore An Interview with Suzan-Lori Parks (2010) Shawn-Marie Garrett Conversation with Suzan-Lori Parks (2011) Dave Steakley PART II: Commentaries Remarks on Parks I (2004) Jonathan Kalb, Robert Brustein, Shawn-Marie Garrett, Mark Robinson, Alisa Solomon Remarks on Parks II (2004) Jonathan Kalb, Richard Foreman, Liz Diamond, Leah C. Gardiner, Bill Walters The Birth of The Death of the Last Black Man: Recollections of the First Staging (2013) Beth Schachter An Interview with Liz Diamond (2013) Philip C. Kolin Bonnie Metzgar on Suzan-Lori Parks (2013) Harvey Young