FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 1, 2004 Contact: Brian Gaston Box Office (401) 863-2838 Fax (401) 863-7529

Brown Theatre and Sock & Buskin present

Fucking A

By Suzan-Lori Parks

Directed by Rebecca Schneider

November 11-21, 2004

Thursday through Sunday at 8 pm except November 21 which is a 3 pm matinee.

Leeds Theatre
Catherine Bryan Dill Performing Arts Center
77 Waterman Street , Providence , Rhode Island
Tickets and Information - 401-863-2838 or www.brown.edu/tickets

Fucking A is a song-filled, soul-full jazz-band drama and bloody and vibrant riff on Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1850 novel The Scarlet Letter . Through the letter A, branded onto Hester Smith's chest, Parks replays Hawthorne 's Adulteress as an Abortionist. Hawthorne 's Hester committed the crime of bringing an unwanted baby, born in prison, into the world. Parks' Hester mourns a "wanted" child -- a poor boy incarcerated for a minor infraction who becomes "Monster" during a life of imprisonment.

Parks' temporal slip of the "A" raises urgent questions about rights to life, the death penalty, the inequitable incarceration and disenfranchisement of people of color, and the torture of prisoners and "detainees" held without legal recourse. Though Parks' calls the world of Fucking A "otherwordly," it is certainly the case that the USA is a prison state. Indeed, the constant but often invisible industry of prison in this country may in many ways be an "other" world to worlds of privilege, such as ours here at Brown University . It is useful to recall that both in absolute numbers and per capita rates, the U.S. remains the world leader in the use of imprisonment. The U.S. rate of incarceration of 701 inmates per 100,000 population is 5-8 times the rate of most industrialized nations. Prison figures from the Bureau of Justice Statistics demonstrate dramatic racial disparities in the use of imprisonment, with African American males in prison at a rate 7.6 times that of white males. On any given day in this nation, 5.4% of adult black males are imprisoned -- or 1 in 19. As many as 1 in 4 are disenfranchised in some States, such as New Mexico, and 1 in 7 have permanently lost the right to vote in States such as Florida where ex-felons are disenfranchised for life, even in the case of minor crimes.

Such statistics provide a backdrop for the revenge tragedy Parks has written. Showing a world of workers at work - from the Mayor on his daily rounds to the Butcher at his chopping block to the Scribe to Hester cleaning her Abortion tools to Canary at work seducing the Mayor - Fucking A asks us to remember the roads traversed between the prisons we support and the lives of work we lead. In a truly smart and moving way, Parks explores what it might mean for a parent to "get mine back" -to exact revenge for the wrongs done to her son in such a world. In avenging her son, is the next generation saved? The costs of freedom are extremely high - as Parks says, "Freedom Ain't Free." If freedom costs dearly, what about revenge? Hester says quite plainly here that "A full refund ain't enough" to pay for the wrongs done to her family. What - this play seems to ask - would be refund enough? What are the wages of reparation and the price of revenge?

And though it all - almost unbelievably - there is laughter and life and music and wit and soul and love.

Digital Publicity Image Information for Fucking A

"finga2.gif" & "finga4.gif" Both images feature Celine Justus as "Hester with Steven Levenson, Akela Marsh and Grand Derkac as "Hunters 1,2 & 3" respectively.

Publicity Photo Information:

Images are in CMYK color format. They are large and will not display in your browser. Please right click and "Save Target As" onto your hard drive. These images are copyright protected and may used solely for the purpose of publicizing Fucking A as produced by Brown Theatre. Use without express consent of the management may lead to prosecution.

Photographer: Brian Gaston

finga2.gif - Celina Justice, Steven Levinson, Akela Marsh, Grand Derkac

finga3.gif - Celina Justice, Steven Levinson, Akela Marsh, Grand Derkac

Cast:
Hester Smith.......................................... Celine Justus
Monster................................................. Biko Eisen-Martin
Mayor.................................................... James Lowe
First Lady............................................... Katherine Meister
Canary Mary.......................................... Shannon Ware
Jailbait, Waiting Woman #2..................... Elan Gepner
Freedom Fund Lady, Waiting Woman #1... Rachel Bonds
Butcher................................................. Michael E. Smith
Hunter #1.............................................. Steven Levenson
Hunter #2.............................................. Akela Marsh
Hunter #3.............................................. Grant Derkac
Guard.................................................... Austin Campion
Freshly Freed Prisoners...... Shanell Lockhart, Andrew Thomas Scribe

Stage Manager....................................... Louisa Bukiet
Assistent Stage Managers........................ Christine Chen, Hannah Miller
Dramaturg............................................. Annabel Topham
TALKBACK coordinator............................ Elaine Carberry

About the Playwright: Suzan-Lori Parks is a playwright, songwriter, screenwriter and novelist. She was the recipient of a 2001 MacArthur "genius grant" and the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play Topdog/Underdog . Her other plays include In the Blood , The America Play , Venus , The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World, and of course Fucking A .

A graduate of Mount Holyoke College , where she studied with James Baldwin, Suzan-Lori Parks received an honorary doctorate from Brown University in 2004. She has taught creative writing in universities across the country, including the Yale School of Drama and she CalArts. Her first feature film, Girl 6, was directed by Spike Lee. She is currently writing an adaptation of Toni Morrison's novel Paradise for Oprah Winfrey, and the musical Hoopz for Disney.