The Playwrights Database
LARRY PARR
Nationality: USA
email: Click here to contact Website: Click here
Literary Agent: The Luedtke Agency
Larry Parr's plays, beginning with the musical biography of Hattie McDaniel, HI-HAT HATTIE, have been produced in regional Theaters all across the United States. HI-HAT HATTIE won Kansas City's Drama Desk Award for Best Musical. Mr. Parr was three times a Florida Individual Artist Recipient, for HI-HAT HATTIE, INVASION OF PRIVACY, and HIS EYE IS ON the SPARROW, twice the winner of Southern Appalachian Repertory Theater's Annual Play Competition with MY CASTLE's ROCKIN' and SUNDEW, and a winner of Florida Studio Theatre's Short Play Competition nine years in a row. He won STAGES '93 and the 1994 Porter Fleming Playwriting Competition. In 1995, he became the first white playwright produced in the history of the National Black Theatre Festival with the production of MY CASTLE's ROCKIN'. INVASION OF PRIVACY won the 1999 Gold Coast Players best-play award and the National Arts Club's Playwrights First Award in Manhattan. In 2000, Florida Studio Theatre presented him with the Barbara anton Playwriting Award. the American Cinema Foundation awarded him their first prize for his screenplay about Hattie McDaniel, also entitled HI-HAT HATTIE. In 2002, he was chosen as a participant in the Floridian Project with HARRY T. MOORE; the MOST HATED MAN IN FLORIDA. the Sarasota County Arts Council awarded him the John Ringling Fellowship Grant for HIS EYE IS ON the SPARROW. He teaches playwriting at Florida Studio Theatre.
Research: Member of the Dramatists Guild of America (as at 2015)
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below is a list of Larry Parr's plays - click on a Play Title for more information
Ethel Waters: His Eye Is On the Sparrow Hi-Hat Hattie, The Story Of Hattie Mcdaniel His Eye is on the Sparrow Invasion Of Privacy My Castle's Rockin', The Story Of Alberta Hunter SundewEthel Waters: His Eye Is On the Sparrow
Synopsis:
Ethel Waters rose from stardom from a most-obscure beginning, a whore's alley in Philadelphia where she lived in poverty with her mother and grandmother. She faced unspeakable racism during her rise to fame, and this racism made her an avowed racist. Ethel Waters: His Eye Is On the Sparrow tells the story of how she was healed of racism and became a whole person. Her story is revealed using many of the songs Ethel introduced, including Am I Blue, Stormy Weather, and of course, His Eye Is On the Sparrow, her signature song.
Notes:
Ethel Waters: His Eye Is On the Sparrow won A State of Florida Individual Artist's Fellowship And the Sarasota Arts Council's John Ringling Award in Sarasota, Florida.
1st Produced:
Florida Studio Theatre, Sarasota, Florida
2005
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Genre:
Musical Biography
Parts:
Male: - Female: 1 Other: piano[layer
Further Reference:
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Top of PageHi-Hat Hattie, The Story Of Hattie Mcdaniel
Synopsis:
Hattie McDaniel was the first African-American to win an Academy Award for her portrayal of Mammy in Gone With the Wind. She was subsequently attacked by the NAACP and members of her own race for "selling out" and helping to perpetuate stereotypes. Hi-Hat Hattie, a musical biography of the great actress, singer, and comedienne, uses many of the songs associated with her life, including Amazing Grace, Danny Boy, Can't Help Lovin' That Man, and many others. It is her life, told from her perspective, and for the first time, we can understand her plight.
Notes:
Hi-Hat Hattie won An Individual Artist's Fellowship from the State of Florida And the Kansas City's theater Reviewer's Best-Musical Award.
1st Produced:
Florida Studio Theatre, Sarasota, Florida
1990
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Genre:
Musical Biography
Parts:
Male: - Female: 1 Other: piano[layer
Further Reference:
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Top of PageHis Eye is on the Sparrow
Synopsis:
If inspirational stories of America's finest African American artists and the music they sang make you want to dance in the aisles, then the story of the legendary Ethel Waters in His Eye Is On the Sparrow will make the earth shake and the heavens sing. Starring Helen Hayes Award-winning Bernardine Mitchell (Mahalia, Three Sistahs).
- dctheatrescene.com
- dctheatrescene.com
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Metrostage, 1201 N. Royal St, Alexandria, Va.
01 Jan 2011
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Genre:
130 min Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageInvasion Of Privacy
Synopsis:
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings was riding high on her success as an author, having won the Pulitzer Prize for her novel, the Yearling and having won many honorary degrees. With the publication of her nonfiction book, Cross Creek, about her friends and neighbors in the little Florida community, her life was about to change. Her friend and neighbor, Zelma Cason, sued her for invasion of privacy. the ensuing lawsuit that played out in backwoods Florida was alternately hilarious and profound, as it pitted the right to privacy against the constitutional promise of free speech.
Notes:
Invasion Of Privacy won the Playwrights First Award from the National Arts Club in Manhattan; the Goldcoast Players Best-Play Award; And A Florida Individual Artist's Fellowship.
1st Produced:
Florida Studio Theatre, Sarasota, Florida
1995
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Genre:
Courtroom biography
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageMy Castle's Rockin', The Story Of Alberta Hunter
Synopsis:
Alberta Hunter, a great jazz and blues singer and song writer, and three major careers. the first started when she ran away from home at 14 years old and went to Chicago to sing in a "sportin' house," where girls could earn $10.00 a week, "a fortune!" From there, her singing career took her to vaudeville, Broadway, and she became a sensational star in Europe, where she had to flee from Europe in the 1940s to get away from the Nazis. In the 1950s, she lost her career to changing music tastes and the rise of Rock and Roll, so she lied about her age to get into nursing school. She worked as a nurse for 20 years, and they made her retire when they thought she was 70 years old. She was really 82. Barney Josephson asked her to appear at the Cookery for a week, and that week turned into 7 years, until her death. All through her life, she was terrified that someone would find out her secret - that she was a lesbian. It was not until she could get rid of the Nazi in her own heart that Alberta could find peace.
Notes:
My Castle's Rockin', the Story Of Alberta Hunter won the Southern Appalachian Repertory theater's Annual Best-Play Award.
1st Produced:
Southern Appalachian Repertory Theater
1995
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Music:
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Genre:
Musical Biography. - - Gay/Lesbian, historical characters
Parts:
Male: - Female: 1 Other: piano[layer
Further Reference:
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Top of PageSundew
Synopsis:
Sundew is a spiritual look at ecology. Elizabeth Andrews owns a large piece of land in Appalachia that she is convinced is the real, Biblical Eden. She sees long-extinct animals that have returned, put there, she thinks, by the hand of God. Most people think she is crazy. Her daughter, Alice, wants to sell the land to a strip-mining company, so she can use the money to go away to school and marry her sweetheart, an orphan named Tom. the ensuing struggle, written in a lyric style of Southern dialect, underscores our obligation to protect the earth, a gift from God.
Notes:
Sundew won the Southern Appalachian Repertory theater's Annual Best-Play Award.
1st Produced:
Southern Appalachian Repertory Theater, Asheville, North Carolina
1993
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
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