Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 2, & 3) by Suzan-Lori Parks

Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 2, & 3) is a devastatingly beautiful, dramatic work set over the course of the Civil War and comprised of three plays presented in a single performance. In Part 1, Hero, a slave who is accustomed to his master’s lies, must decide whether to join him on the Confederate battlefield in exchange for a promise of freedom. Part 2 follows Hero and the Colonel as they lead a captured Union soldier toward the Confederate lines as the cannons approach. Finally, in Part 3, the loved ones Hero left behind question whether to escape or wait for his return – only to discover that for Hero, freedom may have come at a great spiritual cost. In addition to the Horton Foote Prize, the play also won the Edward M. Kennedy Award and was a 2015 Pulitzer Prize Finalist.

Bio:

Suzan-Lori Parks is a multi-award-winning American playwright and the first African-American woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for her Broadway hit Topdog/Underdog. Parks’ adaptation of The Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess won the 2012 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical.  Her other works includes The Book of Grace, Unchain My Heart: The Ray Charles Musical, In the Blood (Pulitzer Prize Finalist), The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World…, The America Play, Fucking A and White Noise (Outer Critics Circle Award).   Her project 365 Days/365 Plays – where she wrote a play a day for an entire year – was produced in over 700 theatres worldwide, creating one of the largest grassroots collaborations in theatre history. A MacArthur “Genius” Fellow, her novel Getting Mother’s Body is published by Random House. In response to the Trump presidency, Parks held witness writing One Hundred Plays for the First Hundred Days.  She also works extensively in film and television, Girl 6 (directed by Spike Lee), adapting Their Eyes Were Watching God (for Oprah Winfrey Presents); Native Son (for HBO). More recently, Parks was the screenwriter for The United States vs Billie Holiday and, also premiering earlier this year, as Showrunner/Executive Producer/Head Writer for Genius: Aretha. During the recent pandemic, Parks embarked on yet another play-a-day project, creating Plays For The Plague Year which is currently being produced at the Public Theater. Parks serves as Writer in Residence at the Public Theatre where she regularly offers her free-to-all, on-line creativity class: Watch Me Work. www.suzanloriparks.com