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The Hills Are Alive for Suzan-Lori Parks

NPR
Published November 30, 2004 at 12:00 AM EST

Novelist and playwright Suzan-Lori Parks has won acclaim for her depictions of modern African-American life.

After receiving a MacArthur "Genius Grant" award in 2001, Parks won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize in drama for Topdog/Underdog), the story of two con men — also brothers — searching for ways to succeed. In the world of movies, filmmaker Spike Lee directed her first feature film, Girl 6.

For the ongoing series Scenes I Wish I Had Written, NPR's Susan Stamberg spoke with the playwright about her favorite dramatic pieces. The writer known for putting colorful dialogue into cleverly structured plots chose two dissimilar sketches: the opening of The Sound of Music, along with a bit of Taxi Driver.

Parks, who lives in California, is currently working on both a new play and a novel.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Corrected: November 10, 2005 at 12:00 AM EST
The screenplay for 'The Great Debaters' film project mentioned in an earlier version of this report was written by Robert Eisele from a story by Eisele and Jeffrey Porro.

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Congress has eliminated all funding for public media.

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The future of public media is in your hands.

All donations are appreciated, but we ask in this moment you consider starting a monthly gift as a Sustainer to help replace what’s been lost.

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