Age, Biography and Wiki

Suzan-Lori Parks was born on 10 May, 1963 in Fort Knox, Kentucky, U.S., is an American playwright. Discover Suzan-Lori Parks's Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. Learn How rich is she in this year and how she spends money? Also learn how she earned most of networth at the age of 60 years old?

Popular As N/A
Occupation Playwright, screenwriter
Age 60 years old
Zodiac Sign Taurus
Born 10 May, 1963
Birthday 10 May
Birthplace Fort Knox, Kentucky, U.S.
Nationality United States

We recommend you to check the complete list of Famous People born on 10 May. She is a member of famous Playwright with the age 60 years old group.

Suzan-Lori Parks Height, Weight & Measurements

At 60 years old, Suzan-Lori Parks height not available right now. We will update Suzan-Lori Parks's Height, weight, Body Measurements, Eye Color, Hair Color, Shoe & Dress size soon as possible.

Physical Status
Height Not Available
Weight Not Available
Body Measurements Not Available
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Who Is Suzan-Lori Parks's Husband?

Her husband is Paul Oscher (m. 2001-2010) Christian Konopka (current)

Family
Parents Not Available
Husband Paul Oscher (m. 2001-2010) Christian Konopka (current)
Sibling Not Available
Children 1

Suzan-Lori Parks Net Worth

Her net worth has been growing significantly in 2023-2024. So, how much is Suzan-Lori Parks worth at the age of 60 years old? Suzan-Lori Parks’s income source is mostly from being a successful Playwright. She is from United States. We have estimated Suzan-Lori Parks's net worth, money, salary, income, and assets.

Net Worth in 2024 $1 Million - $5 Million
Salary in 2024 Under Review
Net Worth in 2023 Pending
Salary in 2023 Under Review
House Not Available
Cars Not Available
Source of Income Playwright

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Timeline

1963

Suzan-Lori Parks (born May 10, 1963) is an American playwright, screenwriter, musician and novelist.

1970

The play's title comes from the horse that won the Kentucky Derby in 1970, Dust Commander.

As the play goes on, we discover that Dust Commander's Derby is responsible for bringing Mare and Lucius together, and through the couple's discussion of him they think back over their many years of memories together.

The motif of dust along with many of the play's lines are intentionally repeated throughout the text.

In addition to this Parks does not give the audience any information on how these two characters have managed to live for so long.

In this way she destabilizes any linear sense of memory and time.

Parks complicates the audience's view of history, relationships, and the past; some argue that Parks's incorporation of these elements and the repetitive style of the text is reminiscent of African rituals and the way that their retelling of stories often incorporate the past in a literal manner.

One of her best-known works is Topdog/Underdog.

This play marked a departure from the heightened language she usually wrote.

Parks is an admirer of Abraham Lincoln and believed he left a legacy for descendants of slaves.

Topdog/Underdog explains what that legacy is.

1981

She graduated high school from The John Carroll School in 1981 while her father was stationed in Aberdeen Proving Ground.

In high school, Parks was discouraged from studying literature by at least one teacher, but upon reading Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse, Parks found herself veering away from her interest in chemistry, gravitating towards writing.

Parks attended Mount Holyoke College and became a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

1985

She graduated in 1985 with a B.A. in English and German literature.

She studied under James Baldwin, who encouraged her to become a playwright; Parks was initially resistant to writing for theater, believing it was elitist and cliquey.

Parks, at his behest, began to write plays.

Baldwin considered her talent as amazing.

Parks then studied acting for a year at Drama Studio London.

1989

Parks was inspired by Wendy Wasserstein who won the Pulitzer in 1989 for her play The Heidi Chronicles and her Mount Holyoke professor, Leah Blatt Glasser.

Parks has written three screenplays and numerous stage plays.

1996

Her first screenplay was for Spike Lee's 1996 film Girl 6.

2001

She has also received a number of grants including the MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Grant in 2001.

2002

Her play Topdog/Underdog won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2002; Parks was the first African-American woman to receive the award for drama.

She was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2023.

Parks was born in Fort Knox, Kentucky.

She grew up with two siblings in a military family.

Parks enjoyed writing poems and songs and created a newspaper with her brother, called the "Daily Daily."

Parks was raised Catholic and attended high school in West Germany, where her father, a career officer in the United States Army, was stationed.

The experience showed her "what it feels like to be neither white nor black, but simply foreign".

After returning to the U.S., Parks's family relocated frequently and she attended school in Kentucky, Texas, California, North Carolina, Maryland, and Vermont.

Parks became the first female African-American to receive the Pulitzer Prize, which was awarded in 2002 for her play Topdog/Underdog.

2005

She later worked with Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Productions on screenplays for Their Eyes Were Watching God (2005) and The Great Debaters (2007).

2017

She is a winner of the 2017 Poets, Essayists and Novelists (PEN) America Literary Awards in the category Master American Dramatist.

2018

She received the 2018 Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award.

This biennial award is given to "established playwrights whose body of work has made significant contributions to the American theatre."

Although Betting on the Dust Commander was not the first play Parks wrote, it was the first of her plays to be produced.

Her first play The Sinner's Place, which she wrote for her senior project at Mount Holyoke, was rejected for production by her college's drama department as they considered it too experimental since she wanted to have dirt on the stage during the performance.

When her second play, Betting on the Dust Commander, first premiered, it ran for three nights in a bar in Manhattan's Lower East Side called Gas Station. It is a short, one-act play set in Kentucky, centering around the lives of a couple, Mare and Lucius, who have been married for 110 years.

Parks's unique voice is displayed throughout the text via her use of specific dialect and incorporation of the sounds of sniffling and sneezing as part of the dialogue.