The Hills Are Alive for Suzan-Lori Parks

Published November 29, 2004 at 9:00 PM PST

Novelist and playwright Suzan-Lori Parks has won acclaim for her depictions of modern African-American life.

After receiving a MacArthur "Genius Grant" award in 2001, Parks won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize in drama for Topdog/Underdog), the story of two con men — also brothers — searching for ways to succeed. In the world of movies, filmmaker Spike Lee directed her first feature film, Girl 6.

For the ongoing series Scenes I Wish I Had Written, NPR's Susan Stamberg spoke with the playwright about her favorite dramatic pieces. The writer known for putting colorful dialogue into cleverly structured plots chose two dissimilar sketches: the opening of The Sound of Music, along with a bit of Taxi Driver.

Parks, who lives in California, is currently working on both a new play and a novel.

Corrected: November 9, 2005 at 9:00 PM PST

The screenplay for 'The Great Debaters' film project mentioned in an earlier version of this report was written by Robert Eisele from a story by Eisele and Jeffrey Porro.