The Kelly Writers House Fellows Program - Charles Fuller April 15-16, 2002

Charles Fuller reading - A digital recording of the April 15, 2002 event where Fuller read from a draft of a new play. See the Writers House calendar entry for more about this event. Charles Fuller interview/conversation - A recording of the April 16, 2002 audiocast of the interview and conversation with Charles Fuller, moderated by Lorene Cary and Al Filreis, Faculty Director of the Kelly Writers House. See the Writers House calendar entry for more about this event.

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 Writers House Fellows Program | Writers House Webcast Archive