A portion of award-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks’ play cycle, 365 Days/365 Plays, will be presented on the SUNY Fredonia campus the first weekend of March. The Performing Arts Company will produce eighteen of the plays in the cycle in McEwen 202 on March 6 and 7 at 8 p.m. The short one-act plays examine issues such as war, family, depression, and personal fulfillment.
On November 13, 2002, Ms. Parks had an idea to write one play a day for an entire year. She began that very day, finishing one year later. The resulting play cycle, called 365 Days/365Plays, is a daily meditation on an artistic life. Some plays are very short, less than a page; others seem to last forever.
An international festival presenting 365 Days/365 Plays was held from November 13, 2006 through November 12, 2007. Over 700 professional and regional theaters produced the plays all across the United States and at universities and community theatres all over the world during that year alone.
Suzan-Lori Parks is a playwright, screenwriter and novelist whose plays include Topdog / Underdog, Imperceptible Mutabilities in the Third Kingdom, The America Play, Venus, The Death Of The Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World, and In The Blood, among others. In 2002, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Topdog/Underdog.
Dr. James Ivey, associate professor of theatre and advisor for The Performing Arts Company, will direct the cycle of plays. Amanda Foreman, a junior BA theatre student, from the Rochester area, will assist Dr. Ivey with the performances. Performers include Elena Box, Steve Brachmann, Shawn Farrell, Lauren Gismondi, Jennifer Lefsyk, Ariel Mombrea, Matthew Nersinger, Thomas Raynor, Will Reilly, Kelly Romard, Elizabeth Ruff, Emma Traubert and Elliot Wadsworth.
365 Days/365 Plays represents the premiere of Ms. Parks’ work on the SUNY Fredonia campus. The free performances will be followed by a brief discussion with the performers and director.
