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About Suzan-Lori Parks
Suzan-Lori Parks is a 61 year old African-American playwright, screenwriter, musician, and novelist. She has 9 full length plays, some of the being “Topdog/Underdog”, “ The American play”, “White noise”, “Plays for the plague year”, among other plays she has written. -
Where Suzan-Lori Parks was born
Suzan-Lori Parks was born on May 10th, 1963. She was born in Fort Knox Kentucky. Her parents are Francis McMillian Parks, and Donald Parks. Her dad was a colonel in the US army. She also has 2 siblings named Stephanie Parks, and Donald Parks. -
Moving from place to place
Since she was born into a military family that meant that they moved a lot. She was born in Kentucky but they immediately moved to North Carolina and then to Texas. In an interview that I watched she said that Texas feels like home because that's where she grew up and she was surrounded by family. They then moved to Germany not knowing the language. She also mentioned that they did get a lot of looks being the only African-Americans in the school and not knowing German. -
Family/Early Childhood
She was born into a military family. Like I said she was born in Fort Knox Kentucky. This place was an army installation where they keep large portions of the US gold reserves. Then in her early childhood they moved to Texas while her dad was serving in Vietnam. -
College
Suzan then moved to Massachusetts to go to study. She went to Mount Holyoke College. It was a private liberal arts women college in South Hadley Massachusetts. Their she was an English and German literature major. That is where she met James Baldwin who taught writing and then started to encourage her to start writing for the theater -
Moving to New York
Suzan now lives in New York where she then started her playwright career. The plays i'll be talking about are "Topdog/Underdog", "Plays for the Plague Year", "Venus", and "Father Comes Home From the Wars". -
"Venus"
The Play "Venus" is about a young Khoekhoe lady that was given a chance to travel to England to be a dancer. The play was set to be in the 19th century. "Venus" was exploited because of her body and when they did this it was when human freak shows were really popular. From my point of view they just used her because she was seen as different and because she was different they saw her as a "freak". -
Venus/Actors
I found an interview with Zainab Jah the actress that played the role of "Venus". She talked about the wardrobe and she said that as soon as she put the costume on she felt like she was her, referring to "Venus". She also talked about "Venus" and she said that when she is performing they wouldn't allow her to be human, and they also didn't see her as a human. -
Marriage/Husband
Suzan first got married in 2001 to Paul Oscher who was a blues musician, but later divorced in 2010. A few years later she married Christian Konopka in 2017. Fun fact about him is that he is a guitarist. Now they have a son together whose name is Patrick. -
"Topdog/Underdog"
"Topdog/Underdog" is about two African American brothers. Their names are Lincoln and Booth. They are siblings trying to survive. They were abandoned by their parents and now live together to help each other out. Lincoln later on the story has a job and brings money home while Booth doesn't have a job and steals things. -
"Topdog/Underdog" / Actors
Yahya Abdul-Mateen played the character of Booth and from an interview that I watched he said that this story is about brotherhood, love, and family. Corey Hawkins played the character of Lincoln and he said that the play is about humanity but they both said that this story is about two brothers fighting for a better future and also a fight to better themselves. -
Broadway
Fun Fact: Suzan Lori Parks has had many plays but in 2002 it was her Broadway debut with the play "Topdog/Underdog". -
"Father Comes Home From the Wars"
The play is about a character named Hero and he is a slave. He got offered freedom from his master if he served in the war. This play took place in the 18 hundreds in the civil war. But Hero is undecided because he doesn't want to fight on the wrong side of the war. -
"Plays for the Plague Year"
"Plays for the Plague Year" was a play Suzan-Lori parks wrote throughout all of the pandemic. What I thought was cool was the she wrote the play, composed the songs, and acted in her own play. -
Writing "Plays for the Plague Year"
From one of Suzan-Lori Parks interview she said that during covid she started to write small plays in her New York apartment kitchen. She said while her son was doing online school she was writing plays every day. Once covid was more controlled all those small plays were put together to be performed at New York's public theater. -
Hobbies
From what I seen she also likes music. She plays guitar and also composes her own music. She composed the songs for "Plays for the Plague Year" and also played the guitar. -
Being discouraged
Throughout high school most of her teachers said that she had poor writing skills and because of that she got discouraged. And now she is a really successful playwright with multiple awards. -
The Pulitzer Prize
Suzan Lori Parks was the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for drama for her "Topdog/Underdog" play. This was in the year 2002. -
Obie Awards
I would also like to mention some of her obie awards for playwright. She has won this award in the years 1996, 2015, and 2019 for her plays "White Noise", "Venus", and "Father Comes Home From the Wars". She also won an obie award in 1990 for the best new American play for her play "Imperceptible Mutabilities in the Third Kingdom". -
Suzan-Lori Parks
Suzan-Lori Parks is a really successful women. Being the first African-American to have won a very important prize and many other awards, I can see that she is an inspiration to a lot of people. She also looks like she enjoys her job and what she does and that is a really important thing. -
Resources
https://youtu.be/sz9xxofq3MU?si=2CURhwQXwVftko2z https://youtu.be/LbPruO7fdtM?si=NyyunlXVbSEZIxqg https://youtu.be/vziko6bLAjY?si=ROQMMJUHtoN30msK https://youtu.be/B6WaV28ITAE?si=3bO7Y_ID1eTck6E7 https://youtu.be/N6O3NC50a8U?si=8NZPHbS691xA6dcP https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/suzan-lori-parks