The America Play Underdog Analysis

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- 48th Season • 458th Production JULIANNE ARGYROS STAGE / JANUARY 8-29, 2012 Marc Masterson ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Paula Tomei MANAGING DIRECTOR David Emmes & Martin Benson FOUNDING ARTISTIC DIRECTORS presents Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks Soojin Lee CoStumE DESIGN Shaun Motley SCENIC DESIGN Jaymi Smith LIGhtING DESIGN Sam Lerner SouND DESIGN Jackie S. Hill PRoDuCtIoN mANAGER Kathryn Davies* StAGE mANAGER Directed by Seret Scott Alan & Olivia Slutzky Honorary Producers Produced on Broadway by Carole Shorenstein hays, Waxman/Williams Entertainment, Bob Boyett, Freddy Demann, Susan Dietz, Ina meibach, Scott Nederlander, Ira Pittelman, hits magazine, Kelpie Arts, Rick Steiner/Frederic h.…show more content…
In that play’s first act we watch a black man who has fashioned a career for himself: He sits in an arcade impersonating Abraham Lincoln and letting people come and play at shooting him dead—like John Wilkes Booth shot our sixteenth president in 1865 during a performance at Ford’s Theatre. So I was thinking about my old play when another black Lincoln impersonator, unrelated to the first guy, came to mind: a new character for a new play. This time I would just focus on his home life. This new Lincoln impersonator’s real name would be Lincoln. He would be a former 3-card monte hustler. He would live with his brother, a man named Booth. My interest in 3-card monte began one day when my husband Paul and I were walking along Canal Street and saw some guys doing the shell game. I was fascinated because, while I’d seen the scam before, this time I had someone whispering a running commentary in my ear, a kind of play-by-play, explaining the ins and outs of the scam, what was really going down. Sure enough the commentator was my husband. Turns out that, back in the days when he played in the Muddy Waters Blues Band, Paul would, for fun, hustle 3-card monte between sets. So when we got home that day he sat me down and showed me how to throw the cards. This is a play about family wounds and healing. Welcome to the family. ~Suzan-Lori Parks’ introduction to the published…show more content…
… And he was shot in a theater by an actor. That’s what draws me to him a lot, also. Costume? Free the slaves? That’s icing on the gravy. Shot in a theater by an actor. How good is that? If you’re a playwright, it just doesn’t get any better than that. ~From an interview conducted by the Academy of Achievement, June 2007

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