Charles Fuller
April 15–16, 2002
- Reading: Streaming video, MP3
- Discussion: Streaming video, MP3
- See the Kelly Writers House calendar entry for more about this event
- 2002 Fellows seminar notes
Bio
Playwright Charles Fuller co-founded the Afro-American Arts theater in his hometown, Philadelphia, in 1967. Fuller first received critical acclaim in 1969 for his play, The Perfect Party. He won an Obie award for The Zooman and the Sign in 1980 and in 1982 he won the Pulitzer Prize for drama for his A Soldier's Play. The play was adapted into a film, A Soldier's Story, in 1984.
"Mr. Fuller demands that his black characters find the courage to break their suicidal, fratricidal cycle-- just as he demands that whites end the injustices that have locked his black characters into a nightmare." -Frank Rich, The New York Times
"My argument is on the stage. I don't have to be angry, O.K.? I get it all out right up there. There's no reason to carry this down from the stage and into the seats. And it does not mean that I am not enraged at injustice or prejudice or bigotry. It simply means that I cannot be enraged all the time. To spend one's life being angry, and in the process doing nothing to change it, is to me ridiculous. I could be mad all day long, but if I'm not doing a damn thing, what difference does it make?" -Charles Fuller, Interview 1982
This visit was co-sponsored by Temple University's Institute for the Study of Literature, Literacy, & Culture and by Art Sanctuary.
Read about Charles Fuller's previous trip to the Writers House