Billy Porter Will Direct Suzan-Lori Parks’ Topdog/Underdog

BWYBLK — Thu, 21 Jul 2016 14:45:40 +0000

With the critically acclaimed Shuffle Along, Or The Making Of The Musical Sensation Of 1921 And All That Followed closing on July 24, Tony Award winner Billy Porter refuses to sit still. He will return to Boston’s Huntington Theatre Company to direct the 2016 production of Suzan-Lori Parks’ Pulitzer Prize-winning Topdog/Underdog.rnrnThe actor, writer, and director who took home a Grammy, Desk Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards for his performance as Lola in the 2013 Broadway production of Kinky Boots, returns to Park’s prize-winning play over a decade after starring in a limited engagement at City Theatre production in Pittsburgh in 2004.rnrn“I am over the moon about returning to the Huntington with such an important work,” says Porter in press statement. “I am humbled that both Huntington Artistic Director Peter DuBois and Suzan-Lori Parks have entrusted me to interpret this material for a new generation. I promise to make you proud!”rnrnTopdog/Underdog tells the story of two co-dependent brothers, Lincoln and Booth, forced to live together and battle poverty, racism, gambling, divorce and abandonment. Lincoln is a former Three-card Monte player, forced to work as an Abraham Lincoln impersonator in a shooting gallery on a boardwalk arcade, while Booth is a grifter turned shoplifter.rnrnThe original Broadway run received an overwhelmingly positive response from critics. Topdog/Underdog opened Off-Broadway at the Public Theater in 2001 under the direction of George C. Wolfe and starred Tony Award winner Jeffrey Wright (Angels in America: Perestroika) as Lincoln and Academy Award nominee Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda, Crash) as Booth. When the production opened on Broadway at the Ambassador Theatre in 2002, Cheadle was replaced by hip-hop legend Mos Def. The play transferred to London at the Royal Court Theatre the following year with the same Broadway cast under Wolfe’s direction. For their efforts, Wright was nominated for a Tony Award and both actors took home the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Special Achievement.rnrnIn 2015, Porter directed a production of George C. Wolfe’s The Colored Museum at the Huntington Theatre.rnrnIn addition, Parks made history as the first African-American woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for Drama. She also received a number of accolades, including the 2000 Guggenheim Fellowship for Playwriting and the 2001 MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Grant.rnrnPerformances for Topdog/Underdog, helmed by Porter are scheduled for March 10-April 9, 2017, at the BU Theatre/Avenue of the Arts. Cast and creative team to be announced. For subscription information call (617) 266-0800 or visit huntingtontheatre.org/subscribe.

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Suzan-Lori Parks Signature Theatre 2016-17 Residency One Playwright

BWYBLK — Fri, 15 Apr 2016 03:25:10 +0000

Suzan-Lori Parks is expanding her resume and her theatrical reach as she is named the 2016-17 Residency One Playwright at the Signature Theatre.rnrnAccording the Signature website, Parks had this to say:rnrn”I’m thrilled to be joining Signature next season as their Residency One playwright! I’m very moved that the righteous Jim Houghton has chosen me to be included in the long list of incredible artists whose works have been explored by Signature over the past 25 years. It’s admirable, isn’t it, how Signature puts the writer at the center of the creative process. Yeah, I’m looking forward to digging in, resurrecting my body of work, taking a fresh look at it with an exciting group of artistic collaborators, and wow, sharing the experience with audiences old and new.”rnrnThe Signature Theater devotes a full season of work to one playwright. The company takes an in-depth look at an artists body of work and creates pieces from new and old works from a writer. This is a fantastic opportunity to revisit one of our great theatrical voices.rnrnMost people recognize Parks from her 2002 Pulitzer Prize winning play Top Dog/Under Dog which originally starred Jeffrey Wright and Don Cheadle and then Wright and Mos Def on Broadway.rnrnHer latest work, Father Comes Home From the Wars Parts 1, 2 & 3, won an Obie Award for Excellence Off-Broadway. Along with her plays, Parks is a renown public speaker who gives several commencement speeches each year. Her words are part enlightenment and part creative guidebook.rnrnHer “Watch me Work” Project, in which fans and spectators watch the prolific playwright and her process in a public space, has garnered lots of attention and thousands of views on YouTube.rnrnrnrnHer past work includes The Book of Grace, In the Blood (a 2000 Pulitzer Prize finalist), Venus, (1996 OBIE Award), The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World, Fucking A, Imperceptible Mutabilities in the Third Kingdom, and The America Play.rnrnPast residencies have included Katori Hall, and Regina Taylor. We are so excited to see the collaboration with this great playwright and this great theater.

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Billy Porter Will Direct Suzan-Lori Parks’ Topdog/Underdog

Suzan-Lori Parks Signature Theatre 2016-17 Residency One Playwright