Father Comes Home From the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3)

Father Comes Home From the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3)
By Suzan-Lori Parks
Directed by Niegel Smith
A Chicago Premiere
May 25 – June 24, 2018 in the Owen

Pulitzer Prize winner Suzan-Lori Parks’ “blazingly original” (The Washington Post) Civil War epic serves up “an American story as much about our present as it is about our past” (The Los Angeles Times). Hero, a Texas slave, faces a simple yet monumental choice: join his master in the Confederate army to win his freedom—or remain enslaved at the plantation. As he debates leaving his lover for what may be another empty promise, Hero must take charge of his life, even when much remains beyond his control. Filled with music, wit and poetic wisdom, the Pulitzer Prize finalist play Father Comes Home from the Wars challenges its audience to navigate their own moral compass in a country that both unites and divides.

PRESS RELEASES

June 4, 2018 | Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 2, and 3) Opening Night

ONSTAGE +
Click here for more behind-the-scenes information, including artist interviews and in-depth articles published by the Goodman.

PHOTOS
High resolution photos are below, please scroll down to view (Production photo credit: Liz Lauren). For more information about the show, including cast head shots and bios, please visit the show page here.

VIDEO
Click here to download Broadcast HD Quality + Web B-Roll

Press Items

Download File	Suzan-Lori Parks, Playwright SUZAN-LORI PARKS Named one of Time magazine’s “100 Innovators for the Next New Wave,” in 2002, Parks was the first African American woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for her Broadway hit Topdog/Underdog. A MacArthur “Genius” Award and Gish Prize recipient, she has also been awarded grants by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts. Her play Father Comes Home From The Wars (Parts 1, 2, & 3) made its world premiere at The Public Theater in New York, followed by a run at American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, MA, and Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles. The play was named a finalist for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and was awarded the 2015 Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History, as well as the 2014 Horton Foote Prize. Parks’ work on The Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess was honored with the 2012 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical. Her numerous plays include The Book of Grace, In the Blood (2000 Pulitzer Prize finalist), Venus (1996 Obie Award), 365 Days/365 Plays and The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World, among others. Parks’ novel Getting Mother’s Body was published by Random House. Her first feature-length screenplay was Girl 6, written for Spike Lee. She’s also written screenplays for Brad Pitt, Denzel Washington and Jodie Foster, as well as adapting Zora Neale Hurston’s classic novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, which premiered on ABC’s Oprah Winfrey Presents. Parks is currently writing an adaptation of the film The Harder They Come for a live stage musical. She is the master writer chair at The Public Theater, A Residency One playwright at Signature Theatre and serves as a professor in dramatic writing at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Author: Goodman Theatre Email: press@goodmantheatre.org Category: Headshots
Download File	Niegel Smith, Director NIEGEL SMITH (Director) is a theater director and performance artist. He is the artistic director of New York’s Obie-Award winning The Flea Theater, associate artistic director of Elastic City and ringleader of Willing Participant, an artistic activist organization. His theater work has been produced by Classical Theatre of Harlem, HERE Arts Center, Hip Hop Theatre Festival, The Invisible Dog, Luna Stage, Magic Theatre, Mixed Blood, New York Fringe Festival, New York Live Arts, Phoenix Theatre Ensemble, Playwrights Horizons, The Public Theater, Summer Play Festival, Todd Theatre and Under the Radar, and his participatory performances have been produced by Abrons Arts Center, American Realness, Dartmouth College, Elastic City, The Invisible Dog, Jack, The New Museum, Prelude Festival, PS 122, the Van Alen Institute and Visual AIDS. He often collaborates with playwright/performer Taylor Mac and with artist Todd Shalom. Smith was the associate director of the Tony Award-winning musical FELA! – restaging that production in London, Lagos and its world tour. He assistant directed the off-Broadway production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and both the Broadway and off-Broadway productions of Tony Kushner’s Caroline, or Change. He has worked on the artistic staffs of The Public Theater, Trinity Repertory Company and Providence Black Rep. A graduate of Dartmouth College, Smith has received residencies, grants and/or fellowships from Brooklyn Arts Council, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Sundance Theatre Lab, Theater Communications Group, Tucker Foundation, Van Lier Fund and VoxFest. Author: Goodman Theatre Email: press@goodmantheatre.org Category: Headshots
Download File	Poster Art, 185×230 Author: Goodman Theatre Email: press@goodmantheatre.org Category: Production Photos
Download File	Poster Art, 1300×360 Author: Goodman Theatre Email: press@goodmantheatre.org Category: Production Photos
Download File	FatherProPhoto_01 Sydney Charles (Second), Jacqueline Williams (Leader), Ernest Perry Jr. (The Oldest Old Man), Michael Aaron Pogue (Fourth), Ronald L Conner (Third) and Kamal Angelo Bolden (Hero) in the Chicago premiere of Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3) by Suzan-Lori Parks, directed by Niegel Smith (May 25 – June 24, 2018). GoodmanTheatre.org/Father Author: Liz Lauren Email: press@goodmantheatre.org Category: Production Photos
Download File	FatherProPhoto_02 Ernest Perry Jr. (The Oldest Old Man) and Melody Angel (Musician) in the Chicago premiere of Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3) by Suzan-Lori Parks, directed by Niegel Smith (May 25 – June 24, 2018). GoodmanTheatre.org/Father Author: Liz Lauren Email: press@goodmantheatre.org Category: Production Photos
Download File	FatherProPhoto_03 Bernard Gilbert (Runaway 3), Nicole Michelle Haskins (Runaway 2), Tyrone Phillips (Runaway 1), and Jaime Lincoln Smith (Homer) in the Chicago premiere of Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3) by Suzan-Lori Parks, directed by Niegel Smith (May 25 – June 24, 2018). GoodmanTheatre.org/Father Author: Liz Lauren Email: press@goodmantheatre.org Category: Production Photos
Download File	FatherProPhoto_04 William Dick (Colonel) and Kamal Angelo Bolden (Hero) in the Chicago premiere of Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3) by Suzan-Lori Parks, directed by Niegel Smith (May 25 – June 24, 2018). GoodmanTheatre.org/Father Author: Liz Lauren Email: press@goodmantheatre.org Category: Production Photos
Download File	FatherProPhoto_05 Jaime Lincoln Smith (Homer) and Kamal Angelo Bolden (Hero) in the Chicago premiere of Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3) by Suzan-Lori Parks, directed by Niegel Smith (May 25 – June 24, 2018). GoodmanTheatre.org/Father Author: Liz Lauren Email: press@goodmantheatre.org Category: Production Photos
Download File	FatherProPhoto_06 Demetrios Troy (Smith) in the Chicago premiere of Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3) by Suzan-Lori Parks, directed by Niegel Smith (May 25 – June 24, 2018). GoodmanTheatre.org/Father Author: Liz Lauren Email: press@goodmantheatre.org Category: Production Photos
Download File	FatherProPhoto_07 Sydney Charles (Second), Jacqueline Williams (Leader), Ernest Perry Jr. (The Oldest Old Man), Michael Aaron Pogue (Fourth) and Ronald L Conner (Third) in the Chicago premiere of Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3) by Suzan-Lori Parks, directed by Niegel Smith (May 25 – June 24, 2018). GoodmanTheatre.org/Father Author: Liz Lauren Email: press@goodmantheatre.org Category: Production Photos
Download File	FatherProPhoto_09 Aimé Donna Kelly (Penny), Kamal Angelo Bolden (Hero/Ulysses) and Ernest Perry Jr. (The Oldest Old Man) in the Chicago premiere of Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3) by Suzan-Lori Parks, directed by Niegel Smith (May 25 – June 24, 2018). GoodmanTheatre.org/Father Author: Liz Lauren Email: press@goodmantheatre.org Category: Production Photos
Download File	FatherProPhoto_10 Melody Angel (Musician) in the Chicago premiere of Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3) by Suzan-Lori Parks, directed by Niegel Smith (May 25 – June 24, 2018). GoodmanTheatre.org/Father Author: Liz Lauren Email: press@goodmantheatre.org Category: Production Photos
Download File	FatherProPhoto_11 Kamal Angelo Bolden (Hero), Aimé Donna Kelly (Penny), Michael Aaron Pogue (Fourth) and Ronald L. Conner (Third) in the Chicago premiere of Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3) by Suzan-Lori Parks, directed by Niegel Smith (May 25 – June 24, 2018). GoodmanTheatre.org/Father Author: Liz Lauren Email: press@goodmantheatre.org Category: Production Photos
Download File	FatherProPhoto_12 BrittneyLove Smith (Odyssey Dog), Jaime Lincoln Smith (Homer), Bernard Gilbert (Runaway 3), Tyrone Phillips (Runaway 1) and Nicole Michelle Haskins (Runaway 2) in the Chicago premiere of Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3) by Suzan-Lori Parks, directed by Niegel Smith (May 25 – June 24, 2018). GoodmanTheatre.org/Father Author: Liz Lauren Email: press@goodmantheatre.org Category: Production Photos
Download File	FatherProPhoto_13 Kamal Angelo Bolden (Hero) and Aimé Donna Kelly (Penny) in the Chicago premiere of Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3) by Suzan-Lori Parks, directed by Niegel Smith (May 25 – June 24, 2018). GoodmanTheatre.org/Father Author: Liz Lauren Email: press@goodmantheatre.org Category: Production Photos
Download File	FatherProPhoto_14 Ernest Perry Jr. (The Oldest Old Man) in the Chicago premiere of Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3) by Suzan-Lori Parks, directed by Niegel Smith (May 25 – June 24, 2018). GoodmanTheatre.org/Father Author: Liz Lauren Email: press@goodmantheatre.org Category: Production Photos
Download File	FatherProPhoto_15 Sydney Charles (Second) and Jacqueline Williams (Leader) in the Chicago premiere of Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3) by Suzan-Lori Parks, directed by Niegel Smith (May 25 – June 24, 2018). GoodmanTheatre.org/Father Author: Liz Lauren Email: press@goodmantheatre.org Category: Production Photos
Download File	FatherProPhoto_16 Ernest Perry Jr. (The Oldest Old Man), Kamal Angelo Bolden (Hero) and Melody Angel (Musician) in the Chicago premiere of Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3) by Suzan-Lori Parks, directed by Niegel Smith (May 25 – June 24, 2018). GoodmanTheatre.org/Father Author: Liz Lauren Email: press@goodmantheatre.org Category: Production Photos
Download File	FatherProPhoto_17 Set Design by Courtney O’Neill for the Chicago premiere of Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3) by Suzan-Lori Parks, directed by Niegel Smith (May 25 – June 24, 2018). GoodmanTheatre.org/Father Author: Liz Lauren Email: press@goodmantheatre.org Category: Production Photos
Download File	FatherProPhoto_18 Father_Pro18: Melody Angel (Musician) in the Chicago premiere of Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3) by Suzan-Lori Parks, directed by Niegel Smith (May 25 – June 24, 2018). GoodmanTheatre.org/Father Author: Liz Lauren Email: press@goodmantheatre.org Category: Production Photos