Playwright, Novelist and Songwriter Suzan-Lori Parks to Receive the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize: JP Morgan Private Bank

 

(New York, NY) – The Gish Prize Trust announced that playwright, novelist and songwriter Suzan-Lori Parks has been selected to receive the 22nd Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, given annually to recognize highly accomplished artists from all disciplines who have pushed the boundaries of their art forms, contributed to social change and paved the way for the next generation. Established in 1994 through the will of legendary stage and screen actress Lillian Gish, known as the First Lady of Cinema, the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious honors given to artists in the United States and bears one of the largest cash awards, currently valued at approximately $300,000.

 

As the recipient of the 2015 Gish Prize, Parks now joins a roster of honorees that includes Frank Gehry, Bob Dylan, Arthur Miller, Shirin Neshat, Ornette Coleman, Trisha Brown, Anna Deavere Smith, Spike Lee and Maya Lin. The Gish Prize will be presented to Parks on the evening of Monday, November 30, 2015 at The Public Theater in New York City, where she has served since 2008 as the institution’s first Master Writer Chair. The private ceremony, attended by leaders of the performing arts and literary communities, will include remarks by Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director of The Public Theater, and playwright and screenwriter Tony Kushner. The event will also feature a performance of an excerpt from Parks’s play Topdog/Underdog featuring actors Brandon J. Dirden and Jason Dirden, as well as a musical performance by Parks and bandmate Steven Bargonetti. 

 

Suzan-Lori Parks said, “To be a recipient of the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize is a great honor. Past winners—I’ve been looking up to them and following in their footsteps for years. And now I’m invited to join them? It’s brilliantly trippy. And it’s humbling too, getting invited into this family of artists.”

 

The first African American woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize in Drama, Suzan-Lori Parks has created a powerful and pervasive body of work that has helped define American theater today. Best known for such groundbreaking dramas as Topdog/Underdog—awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 2002—and Father Comes Home From The Wars, Parks’s work challenges contemporary conceptions of race, sexuality, family and society, and is distinguished by its striking wordplay, vibrant wit and uninhibited style. Throughout her career, Parks has drawn inspiration from a rich blend of literary and historical traditions to produce her plays, her novel Getting Mother’s Body (Random House, 2003) and numerous screenplays, including scripts for Spike Lee’s Girl 6 and an adaptation of Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God for executive producer Oprah Winfrey. In 2007, after writing one short play every day for a year, Parks undertook one of the largest and most ambitious grassroots collaborations in theater history when 365 Days/365 Plays was produced in more than 700 venues around the world, from street corners to opera houses. Following the success in 2011 of the Tony Award Winning Broadway production of The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, for which she wrote the script adaptation, Parks has deepened her involvement with music, performing solo and with her band at venues around New York City and overseas. She was named the first Master Writer Chair at The Public Theater in 2008 and currently appears regularly on the mezzanine of the lobby in the free performance piece Watch Me Work, a meditation on the artistic process and actual work session in which audience members participate by doing their own writing and then getting feedback and guidance from Parks about their creative process. Parks also serves as a visiting arts professor in dramatic writing at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and holds honorary doctorates from Brown University, among other institutions. 

 

The Gish Prize selection committee chose Suzan-Lori Parks from among a multidisciplinary group of 54 outstanding figures nominated by members of the arts community. The selection committee for 2015 was chair Ella Baff, newly appointed Senior Program Officer for the Arts and Cultural Heritage Program for The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; Russell Granet, Executive Director of Lincoln Center Education; Kevin Moriarty, Artistic Director of the Dallas Theater Center; Mikki Shepard, Executive Director of the Apollo Theater; and A.M. Homes, writer.

 

Ella Baff stated, “Suzan-Lori Parks has, in the words of Ms. Gish, ‘made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind’s enjoyment and understanding of life.’ She has an audacious and vivid imagination. Her writing is a complex and multi-layered articulation of history, myth, sexuality and identity told in voices that need to be heard.” 

 

JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. serves as trustee of the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize Trust. Speaking for The Philanthropy Centre at J.P. Morgan Private Bank, Managing Director Jacqueline E. Elias stated, “With the help of our esteemed selection committee, we have continued to support Lillian Gish’s vision of recognizing and celebrating those artists who have made an indelible impact through their work. In choosing Suzan-Lori Parks, this year’s committee has underscored the continuing importance of dramatic writing in giving voice to the endless variety of human experience and shaping our society, and has provided substantive support to Ms. Parks’s ongoing creative endeavors. We congratulate Suzan-Lori Parks on receiving this high honor.”  

 

For further information, visit www.gishprize.com.