The King's Feast
 Food, frolic, and Fun! 401/573-0300 |
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Through the Letter A, burned through the clothes onto Hester Smith's chest like a brand, Parks replays Hawthorne 's Adulteress as an Abortionist. Parks' slip of the A raises contemporary questions about rights to life, the death penalty, the inequitable incarceration of black men, and the torture of prisoners held without legal recourse. Though Parks' calls this world “otherworldly,” it resonates in parable fashion with our own here and now. In "F***ing A", Parks' shows us a world where, as one character says, "Freedom Ain't Free." But she also shows us the heartbeat of a range of people who keep struggling for decency, equity, and some kind of restitution. Parks' character Hester Smith works hard to save enough money to buy a single picnic outing with her son who has been imprisoned since he was a boy – so long that Hester can barely remember him. When the “Freedom Fund” into which Hester pays loses her son, they simply send her a different prisoner in his place. But Hester has engaged her own tracking devise – a memory brand of her own – and she discovers the ruse. As Hester struggles to find recourse to restitution – or failing that, revenge – Parks' shows us love, lust, hunger, laughter, anger, grief, joy, and forgiveness. The play engages passionately with what it means to be embodied, con-scripted, and alive. If “Freedom Ain't Free,” Parks makes it clear how we all pay. How -- yes -- absolutely everyone pays. About the Playwright: A graduate of Mount Holyoke College , where she studied with James Baldwin, Suzan-Lori Parks received her honorary masters from Brown University in 2004. She has taught creative writing in universities across the country, including at the Yale School of Drama, and she currently heads the Dramatic Writing Program at CalArts. Parks is a playwright, songwriter, screenwriter and novelist - her first novel, Getting Mother's Body , will be published this spring by Random House. She was the recipient of a 2001 MacArthur "genius grant” and the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play Topdog/Underdog . Her other plays include In the Blood , The America Play , Venus , The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World, and of course Fucking A . Her first feature film, Girl 6 , was directed by Spike Lee. she has taught She is currently writing an adaptation of Toni Morrison's novel Paradise for Oprah Winfrey, and the musical Hoopz for Disney. She lives in Venice Beach , California , with her husband, blues musician Paul Scher, and their pit bull, Lambchop. "F***ing A" By Suzan-Lori Parks Directed by Rebecca Schneider November 11-21, 2004 Thursday through Sunday at 8 pm except November 21 which is a 3 pm matinee. Leeds Theatre Catherine Bryan Dill Performing Arts Center 77 Waterman Street , Providence , Rhode Island Tickets and Information – 401-863-2838 or www.brown.edu/tickets |
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