A darkly comic fable of brotherly love and family identity. The play tells the story of Lincoln and Booth, two brothers whose names were given to them as a joke, foretelling a lifetime of sibling rivalry. Haunted by the past, the brothers are forced to confront the reality of their future.

"In this exciting new anthology, Wesley Brown and Aimee K. Michel bring together six wonderfully teachable plays by some of the greatest American women dramatists of the past fifty years-- Ntozake Shange, Suzan-Lori Parks, Paula Vogel, Lynn Nottage, Beth Henley, and Susan Yankowitz. The editors provide a helpful Introduction to the last 100 years of theatrical activity, from suffrage and anti-lynching plays, through the explosive 1960s, to recent Broadway triumphs, highlighting women's struggle-a struggle that continues--to put their vision and voices on the American stage." Elin Diamond, Rutgers University, USA This volume celebrates the iconoclastic power of six American women playwrights who pushed the boundaries of the form outside the box of conventional drama. Each play is accompanied by a short introduction providing the biographical background of the playwright as well as discussing the dramatic style of her writing, the extent to which her work is informed by major playwrights of the period, and how the specific work illustrates the overarching themes of her body of work. The plays included are: Gun by Susan Yankowitz Spell #7: geechee jibara quik magic trance manual for technologically stressed third world people by Ntozake Shange The Jacksonian by Beth Henley The Baltimore Waltz by Paula Vogel In the Blood by Suzan-Lori Parks Intimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage

An epic dramatic trilogy set during the American Civil War, by one of America's leading playwrights. America, 1862, during the Civil War. Hero, a slave, is promised his freedom if he joins his master in the ranks of the Confederacy against the Union. In a nation at war with itself, he must fight against those striving to abolish slavery. The family he leaves behind debates whether to escape or await his return, and they fear that, for Hero, freedom is an empty promise that may come at a great cost. Suzan-Lori Parks' Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3) received its UK premiere in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2016, directed by Jo Bonney. The trilogy premiered at The Public Theater, New York, in 2014, was a finalist for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and won the Edward M Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History.

Pulitzer Prize & Tony Award winner Suzan-Lori Parks (Topdog/Underdog) delivers the stunning first installment of a new American Odyssey, set over the course of the Civil War. Offered his freedom if he joins his master in the ranks of the Confederacy, Hero, a slave, must choose whether to leave the woman and people he loves for what may be yet another empty promise. As his decision brings him face-to-face with a nation at war with itself, the loved ones Hero left behind debate whether to

A darkly comic fable of brotherly love and family identity is Suzan-Lori Parks latest riff on the way we are defined by history. The play tells the story of Lincoln and Booth, two brothers whose names were given to them as a joke, foretelling a lifetime of sibling rivalry and resentment. Haunted by the past, the brothers are forced to confront the shattering reality of their future.

Suzan-Lori Parks is the author of numerous plays, including "In the Blood" and "Venus." She is currently head of the A.S.K. Theater Projects Writing for Performance Program at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia.

Thirty-somethings Leo, Misha, Ralph and Dawn have been inseparable since college. Making their way together in the big city, they are liberal, open-minded and socially aware. As best friends and lovers, confident in their 'woke-ness', their connection with each other is stronger than anything else - until Leo is assaulted by the police in a racially motivated incident. Shaken to the core, he brings to the group an extreme proposition... Suzan-Lori Parks' play White Noise takes an unflinching look at race in the twenty-first century from both a black and white perspective. It was first performed at The Public Theater, New York, in March 2019, directed by Oskar Eustis, and had its European premiere at the Bridge Theatre, London, in October 2021, directed by Polly Findlay.

"In this exciting new anthology, Wesley Brown and Aimee K. Michel bring together six wonderfully teachable plays by some of the greatest American women dramatists of the past fifty years-- Ntozake Shange, Suzan-Lori Parks, Paula Vogel, Lynn Nottage, Beth Henley, and Susan Yankowitz. The editors provide a helpful Introduction to the last 100 years of theatrical activity, from suffrage and anti-lynching plays, through the explosive 1960s, to recent Broadway triumphs, highlighting women's struggle-a struggle that continues--to put their vision and voices on the American stage." Elin Diamond, Rutgers University, USA This volume celebrates the iconoclastic power of six American women playwrights who pushed the boundaries of the form outside the box of conventional drama. Each play is accompanied by a short introduction providing the biographical background of the playwright as well as discussing the dramatic style of her writing, the extent to which her work is informed by major playwrights of the period, and how the specific work illustrates the overarching themes of her body of work. The plays included are: Gun by Susan Yankowitz Spell #7: geechee jibara quik magic trance manual for technologically stressed third world people by Ntozake Shange The Jacksonian by Beth Henley The Baltimore Waltz by Paula Vogel In the Blood by Suzan-Lori Parks Intimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage

" Suzan-Lori Parks'] dislocating stage devices, stark but poetic language and fiercely idiosyncratic images transform her work into something haunting and marvelous."--"Time"

"An original whose fierce intelligence and fearless approach to craft subvert theatrical convention and produce a mature and inimitable art that is as exciting as it is fresh."--August Wilson

Named one of the "100 Innovators for the Next New Wave" by "Time" magazine, Suzan-Lori Parks is a truly original voice of the American theater. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and a MacArthur "Genius" Award, Parks is renowned for her groundbreaking language, theatricality, and an aesthetic that continues to evolve in unexpected ways. Her first full-length play since her award-winning "Topdog/Underdog," "The Book of Grace" is a scorching three-person drama in which a young man returns home to south Texas to confront his father, unearthing deep-seated passions and ambition. The play premiered in spring 2010 at the Public Theater, where Parks is in the midst of a three-year residency as the first recipient of the theater's master writer chair.

Suzan-Lori Parks is a playwright, screenwriter, songwriter, and novelist. Her plays include "Topdog/Underdog" (winner of the 2002 Pulitzer Prize), "In the Blood" (a 2000 Pulitzer Prize finalist), "Venus" (OBIE Award winner) and "Imperceptible Mutabilities in the Third Kingdom" (OBIE Award, Best New American Play).

"Parks has burst through every known convention to invent a new theatrical language, like a jive Samuel Beckett, while exploding American cultural myths and stereotypes along the way.... She's passionate and jokey and some kind of genius."--"Vogue"

On 13 November 2002, just seven months after winning the Pulitzer Prize for Topdog/Underdog, Suzan-Lori Parks got the idea to write a play everyday for the forthcoming 365 days. She began that very day, finishing exactly one year later. Each play is a response to what happened on a personal or public level on that particular day.

Pulitzer Prize winner Suzan-Lori Parks' s wildly original debut novel, Getting Mother' s Body, follows pregnant, unmarried Billy Beede and her down-and-out family in 1960s Texas as they search for the storied jewels buried-- or were they?-- with Billy' s fast-running, six-years-dead mother, Willa Mae. Getting Mother' s Body is a true spiritual successor to the work of writers such as Zora Neale Hurston and Alice Walker-- but when it comes to bringing hard-luck characters to ingenious, uproarious life, Suzan-Lori Parks shares the stage with no one.

The second volume in this series brings together some of the best new writing from contemporary American playwrights. Each play is introduced by critically acclaimed writers themselves. THE EDGE OF OUR BODIES by Adam Rapp, Introduced by AM Homes, follows a teenage girl Bernadette who has to grow up quickly when she discovers she is pregnant. THE COWARD by Nick Jones, introduced by Marsha Norman, is an absurdist comedy set in 18th century England. Lucidus initiates a pistol duel, but when he finds he'll have to fight the son of the man he challenged, he doesn't want to go through with it. His plot to avoid the duel creates more trouble. THE BOOK OF GRACE by Suzan-Lori Parks, introduced by Oskar Eustis, portrays a dysfunctional American family, where anger and mistrust are symptoms of historical abuse. WHAT ONCE WE FELT by Ann Marie Healy, introduced by Paula Vogel, is set in a mysterious parallel universe, where Macy is the last ever author to be published in print, the system has an underclass named the Tradepack, and a woman can only have a baby if she possesses the right kind of 'scan card'.