SUZAN-LORI
PARKS
Venus
New York Shakespeare Festival, NY
Venus is
loosely based on the story of an African woman who was taken
to London in the early 19th century, to be exhibited in a circus. The exhibition
of "the
Venus Hottentot" was exceptionally successful and the woman gained a dedicated
following with members of society. Because of the notoriety of the viewings,
a debate began as to whether the exhibition constituted slavery, and a court
actually heard a case to determine whether the exhibitioner should be sentenced
under England's antislavery laws. From this story, Parks has crafted an epic
play which examines such issues as the objectification of people and cultures;
our fascination with what is "heathen" or foreign; and how people are influenced
more often by appearances than substance.
Suzan-Lori
Parks is the author of Imperceptible Mutabilities in the Third Kingdom,
which received a 1990 Obie Award for Best Play and was produced by BACA Downtown
in Brooklyn. The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World,
also originally produced by BACA, was subsequently presented as part of Yale
Repertory Theatre's 1992 Winterfest and is published in TCG's anthology Moonmarked
and Touched by the Sun. Parks' The America Play was co-produced by
Yale Repertory Theatre and the New York Shakespeare Festival, was directed by
Liz Diamond. Her other plays include Betting on the Dust Commander, The
Sinner's Place, Fishes, and Devotees in the Garden of Love.
She is the author of the screenplay for Spike Lee's film Girl 6. Parks
is the recipient of a Whiting Foundation Writers Award and two National Endowment
for the Arts playwriting fellowships and has been awarded grants by the Rockefeller
Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts, and
the New York Foundation for the Arts. She is an associate artist at the Yale
School of Drama and a member of New Dramatists. Venus was co-produced
with the Yale Repertory Company.
Director: Richard
Foreman
Set Designer: Richard Foreman
Lighting Designer: Heather Carson
Costume Design: Paul Tazewell
Music: Phillip Johnston
Featured Performers: Peter Francis James, Lynn Hawley, Adrian Lenox,
Adina Porter, Ben Shenkman
Running Dates: Opened May 2, 1995
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts