Public Theater Announces Master Writer Chair Position; Suzan-Lori Parks First Recipient

The Public Theater (Artistic Director Oskar Eustis; Executive Director Andrew D. Hamingson) announced today that it received a substantial three-year grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to launch the first Public Theater Master Writer Chair position.  Suzan-Lori Parks has been awarded the Chair that will include a Visiting Arts Professor appointment at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Rita and Burton Goldberg Department of Dramatic Writing, effective November 1, 2008. The new residency is a component of The Public Writers Initiative.  Time Warner is the Founding Sponsor of The Public Writers Initiative.

In establishing the Master Writer Chair program, The Public will provide an artistic home and support for established playwrights whose work has set the standard for the highest level of achievement in theater.   Inspired by the university model, the full-salaried position affords writers the flexibility and freedom to pursue their artistic goals and endeavors.  Master Writers will receive full artistic and administrative support, the chance to develop their work with the full resources of The Public Theater and participate in the artistic life of the theater.  

“Suzan-Lori Parks is one of our greatest artists, and this Chair will allow her the freedom to follow her unique vision wherever it might lead her.  We at The Public are honored to have her as part of our family,” said Public Theater Artistic Director Oskar Eustis.  “I hope The Mellon Foundation’s astonishing support will inspire theaters and philanthropists across the country to establish Chairs to keep our best playwrights in the theater, where they belong.”

 “The Public Theater has been my artistic home since 1993, and I feel grateful and blessed that this new position was created to offer unprecedented support for my writing,” said Suzan-Lori Parks.  “I’m also excited to be invited to participate in the full artistic life of the theater.  I’m impressed by the course that Oskar Eustis has charted for The Public, and I look forward to helping to support his vision in any way I can.”

“We are delighted with the addition of the outstanding playwright Suzan-Lori Parks to the faculty of the Rita and Burton Goldberg Department of Dramatic Writing,” said Dean of the Tisch School of the Arts Mary Schmidt Campbell.  “We also want to thank The Public Theater’s Artistic Director Oskar Eustis, whose idea it was for this exciting joint venture between our two institutions.  The support of playwrights and the development of new plays is crucial to the vibrancy of the American theatre and we are proud to be in the forefront of this effort with our unique collaboration.”

Building on its 50-year history of developing new plays and cultivating new voices for the American Theater, The Public Writers Initiative provides critical support and resources for a diverse group of writers at different stages in their careers.  The goal is to nurture a sense of community among writers of different generations, backgrounds and aesthetics and to inspire writers to grow and learn from each other while building important new relationships. 

The Public Writers Initiative falls under the auspices of the LuEsther Lab for New Play Development, named for the late LuEsther T. Mertz.

The Public Theater has a longstanding history with Parks, having developed and premiered many of her plays including The America Play, Venus, In the Blood, Topdog/Underdog, f-ing A and 365 Days/365 Plays.

Suzan-Lori Parks is a playwright, screenwriter and novelist whose plays include 365 Days/365 Plays (produced simultaneously in over 700 theatres worldwide, creating one of the largest collaborations in theatre history) ,Topdog/Underdog (2002 Pulitzer Prize; Public Theater), f-ing A (Public Theater), Imperceptible Mutabilities in the Third Kingdom (1990 Obie Award for Best New American Play), The American Play (Public Theater), Venus (Public Theater, 1996 Obie Award), The Death Of The Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World, and In The Blood (Public Theater, 2002 Pulitzer Prize finalist), among others.  Her work is the subject of the PBS Film “The Topdog/Underdog Diaries.”  She is an alumnae of New Dramatists, and has been awarded grants by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts. She was also the recipient of a Lila-Wallace Reader's Digest Award, a CalArts/Alpert Award in the Arts (Drama) for 1996 and a Guggenheim Foundation Grant.   Her work for film and television includes “Girl 6” (directed by Spike Lee) and the adaptation of Zora Neale Hurston’sTheir Eyes Were Watching God, for Oprah Winfrey Presents, which premiered in 2005 on ABC.  Her first novel, Getting Mother’s Body, is published by Random House.  She is currently writing the book for the Ray Charles musical (for the film producers of “Ray”).  A recipient of a MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Award, Parks received the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play Topdog/Underdog.

For more information on The Public Theater, visit www.publictheater.org.

Photo Credit Stephanie Diani

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