City Arts' Future List Director, Malika Oyetimein, Directs Suzan-Lori Parks for Thesis Production

Malika Oyetimein, third year MFA candidate in Directing at the UW School of Drama, and featured on City Arts' 2016 Future List, will be directing the regional premier of Suzan-Lori Parks' visceral drama, f-ing A for her thesis production.

A Pulitzer Prize winner and MacArthur Genius, playwright Suzan-Lori Parks loosely based this piece off of Nathaniel Hawthorne's American classic, The Scarlet Letter. f-ing A tells the tragic story of Hester Smith - branded A for Abortionist - plying her trade in hopes of buying her son's freedom from prison. Employing Parks' singular mingling of theatrical language, music, and dance, f-ing A is a scream of rage at the plight of those on the margins of society.

Malika Oyetimein sees this play as a story specifically about the role of race, poverty, and marginalization in America. "The setting of the play simply says 'the setting should reflect the poverty of the world.' When I first read that I could not get over how sparse that description was," says Oyetimein. "f-ing A is the world of raw power, violent imprisonment, sadistic bloodiness, and complicating matters of sexuality and infertility. It's a world where women need to speak a separate language when they are talking about their gynecological matters. It's a world where bounTy Hunters drink more than they read and brag about which body parts are the most lucrative to slice off escaped prisoners. It's a play where prisoners can't see their families unless they pay. 'Freedom ain't free' is the model of the capitalistic world and that means blood, pain, and tightness. And then it hit me...I got it. This play has to be set in America because it is an American story. Suzan-Lori has written the DNA of America into f-ing A."

f-ing A previews November 29 & December 1st and runs December 2 - 11. Performances are Wednesday-Saturday at 7:30 pm and Sundays at 2 pm. Tickets range from $10-20 and are available online or over the phone through the ArtsUW Ticket Office, 206-543-4880 / drama.uw.edu/performances. The ArtsUW Ticket Office is located at 1313 NE 41st Street, open Monday-Friday, 11 am-6 pm.

Performances are in the Meany Studio Theater on the University of Washington Campus.

About The University of Washington School of Drama

The UW School of Drama develops innovative and courageous artists and scholars poised to be the creative leaders of tomorrow.

For over 75 years it has served as one of this country's leading training institutions for theatre artists and scholars. The School of Drama offers MFA degrees in acting, design, and directing, a four-year undergraduate liberal arts education in Drama, and a PhD in theatre history and criticism. Faculty and alumni have founded theatres such as ACT-A Contemporary Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Empty Space Theatre, Jet City Improv, and more recently, the Washington Ensemble Theatre, Azeotrope, and The Horse in Motion.

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