The Hills Are Alive for Suzan-Lori Parks
Stage successes led Suzan-Lori Parks to write stories and novels. Random House hide caption
Suzan-Lori Parks lists scenes from The Sound of Music and Taxi Driver among her favorites. 20th Century Fox, Columbia/TriStar hide caption
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.
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Correction Nov. 10, 2005
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.