STAGE ON SCREEN: THE TOPDOG DIARIES

Biographies

SUZAN-LORI PARKS Playwright Suzan-Lori Parks won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for TOPDOG/UNDERDOG. A recipient of a 2001 MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Award, Ms. Parks began writing plays in the early 1980s at the suggestion of James Baldwin, with whom she was studying creative writing. Ms. Parks is the author of more than 15 plays including "The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World," "The America Play," "Imperceptible Mutabilities in the Third Kingdom" (1990 Obie Award), "Venus" (1996 Obie Award), "Fucking A" (premiering next season at New York Shakespeare Festival), and "In the Blood" (2000 Pulitzer nominee). Her screenplays include scripts for Danny Glover and Jodie Foster, as well as GIRL 6, directed by Spike Lee. Ms. Parks runs the Dramatic Writing Program at California Institute of the Arts. Currently she is working on "Hoopz," a musical for Disney Theatricals; an adaptation of Toni Morrison's novel PARADISE for Harpo Films; and her first novel, GETTING MOTHER'S BODY.

OREN JACOBY Producer and Director, THE TOPDOG DIARIES Winner of the CINE Golden Eagle Award, the American Film Institute Independent Filmmakers Award, and the Royal Television Society (UK) Journalism Award, Oren Jacoby has written, directed, and produced award-winning films for PBS, ABC, National Geographic, Discovery, Turner, NHK (Japan), and the BBC. In addition to THE TOPDOG DIARIES, new projects include THE SHAKESPEARE SESSIONS (also coming this fall on PBS), with John Barton and Sir Peter Hall, co-founders of the Royal Shakespeare Company, starring Kevin Kline, Dustin Hoffman, Liev Schreiber, Charles S. Dutton, and others.

Mr. Jacoby's other projects for Thirteen/WNET New York include SAM SHEPARD: STALKING HIMSELF for GREAT PERFORMANCES series and BENNY GOODMAN: ADVENTURES IN THE KINGDOM OF SWING for AMERICAN MASTERS. Additional recent credits include: THE BEATLES REVOLUTION for ABC, VH-1, and the Beatles' own Apple Corp., SWINGIN' WITH DUKE starring Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra; MASTER THIEF, on the "art heist of the century" for ABC; and the Emmy Award-winning series, IRISH IN AMERICA. Mr. Jacoby also wrote, produced, and directed THE POWER OF AN IDEA and SEEKING JUSTICE for Human Rights Watch; THE RETURN TICKET, adapted from a short story by Anton Chekhov; GHOSTS OF THE BAYOU, an impressionistic look at New Orleans and its supernatural legends; IDOLS OF THE GAME, featuring Michael Jordan; and THE SECOND RUSSIAN REVOLUTION, on the collapse of the USSR.

Mr. Jacoby is also a theater director whose plays have been staged at Theater for the New City, the Williamstown Theater Festival, Ensemble Studio Theater, and regional theaters. He collaborated with Adrian Hall on an adaptation of Robert Penn Warren's ALL THE KING'S MEN, produced at the Dallas Theater Center, Trinity Rep, and Arena Stage. He is a graduate of Brown University and the directing program of the Yale School of Drama.

JAC VENZA Executive Producer, STAGE ON SCREEN Director of Culture and Arts Programs, Thirteen/WNET New York As one of the pioneers of non-commercial television in America for over three decades, Jac Venza has been a major figure in harnessing the power of television to achieve international fledgling public broadcasting system and its first head of drama. With the GREAT PERFORMANCES series in 1972, Mr. Venza created a new framework for the performing arts on PBS, launching the sub-series THEATER IN AMERICA and DANCE IN AMERICA to initiate television collaborations with performers and artistic companies throughout the country. GREAT PERFORMANCES has received every major television honor, including nearly 50 Emmy Awards. In honor of the series' 25th anniversary season and approximately 600 programs, Mr. Venza was awarded the primetime Emmy's Governor's Award for Lifetime Achievement, the International Emmy Founders Award, the New York Emmy chapter's Silver Circle Awards, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's Ralph Lowell Award, and a personal Peabody Award. GREAT PERFORMANCES will celebrate its 30th anniversary in the 2002-2003 broadcast season.

Mr. Venza's recent culture and arts presentations by Thirteen/WNET New York for PBS include the six-part, Peabody-winning I'LL MAKE ME A WORLD: A CENTURY OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN ARTS (February, 1999); Robert Hughes' six-part AUSTRALIA: BEYOND THE FATAL SHORE (September, 2000); and Richard Eyre's six-part CHANGING STAGES (August, 2001). In October, 2000 he launched the new theater showcase STAGE ON SCREEN with a live telecast of "The Man Who Came to Dinner" from the Roundabout Theatre. Subsequent STAGE ON SCREEN programs include Anna Deavere Smith's TWILIGHT: LOS ANGELES; A.R. Gurney's FAR EAST; TANTALUS: BEHIND THE MASK; The Roundabout's production of Clare Booth Luce's "The Women"; and a two-part tribute to Samuel Beckett, BECKETT ON FILM and WAITING FOR GODOT.

Thirteen/WNET New York is one of the key program providers for public television, bringing such acclaimed series as NATURE, GREAT PERFORMANCES, AMERICAN MASTERS, CHARLIE ROSE, RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY, and EGG THE ARTS SHOW -- as well as the work of Bill Moyers -- to audiences nationwide. As the flagship public broadcaster in the New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut metro area, Thirteen reaches millions of viewers each week, airing the best of American public television along with its own local productions such as CITY ARTS, CITY LIFE, THE NEW YORK WALKING TOURS, and REEL NEW YORK -- and reaching vast new audiences through its MetroArts/Thirteen cable arts programming. With educational and community outreach projects that enhance the value of its productions, Thirteen takes television "out of the box." And as broadcast and digital media converge, Thirteen is blazing trails in the creation of Web sites, CD-ROMs, educational software, and other cutting-edge media products. More information about Thirteen can be found at: www.thirteen.org.