Meet Playwright Paris Crayton III

Sponsored by Jason Dion

MEET THE PLAYFEST PLAYWRIGHT PARIS CRAYTON III

“Only Some of God’s Children or Mississippi Magnolias“

By Paris Crayton III
Directed by Angel Bates Creeks

Performance: November 3, 2023
Time: 8pm

An interview with Caroline M. Hull

Please tell us about the title of your play, and what was it that inspired you to pursue this particular script?

So, it’s a long title, and the reason I chose to give a long title was so it could stand out. I’ve seen other plays with very long titles, and so I thought, “Let me just play around with the title.” So it’s called “Only Some of God’s Children or Mississippi Magnolias”. What inspired me was I took a trip to Mississippi with my grandmother. She’s from this really small town in Mississippi called Plantersville. Actually, she lived down the street from where Elvis was born and raised. Yeah, that was the inspiration – and also, the play “Fences.” So it’s kind of a riff off the play “Fences” because I wanted to know what it would be like if Troy, the main character in “Fences,” and his best friend Bono had more to their relationship than meets the eye. That was the start of my play.

 

Regarding your journey as a playwright, what initially inspired you to begin writing?

I was an only kid for quite some time and had to entertain myself in some way. So, I always say that I think I was destined to be a playwright, because my very first memory is having a notebook in my hand. And this was before I even knew words. I would just scribble in notebooks, and that was my favorite pastime as a kid, was just scribbling in notebooks. It always felt like I was destined to become a writer because as soon as I learned what words were, how to spell, and how to write, I was writing stories. I’ve been this way all my life. I never had a passion for anything other than theater and telling stories.

 

Have you had to do anything in particular to prepare yourself for the start of PlayFest?

Not really. They want me to send in a new draft if I have any new draft of the script, but that’s not a necessity. We’ve done casting, which is exciting because I have a really killer cast. But no, I haven’t done much work outside of that.

 

If you could have audiences take away one major thing from this script, what would you want it to be?

That’s a great question. I think I want it to be “love is love.” That’s it. Love is love, and you can’t run from it, you can’t hide from it. You love who you love, and that’s it, you know?

 

If you had any advice for people looking to get into playwriting, at any stage of their careers or their lives, what would you advise them to pursue or look into?

I would advise them to start writing right now. I know a lot of times, people wait around, and sometimes they make excuses, or they wait for the right time, or they wait for inspiration to strike. But if you wait for inspiration to strike, a lot of times, you don’t get anything done. So if you want to write, start to write right now. Writers write. Waiters wait. They serve tables. And if that’s not what you want to do, you need to write.

 

Do you feel like you see yourself in any of the characters that you write And what would you say are your main artistic influences?

I do. I do, although, for the last few years, I’ve been writing characters that are much older than me. A lot of folks have always said I have an old soul. But I do, even if they’re sometimes the villain or something, they all come from me. And it’s like, “Oh, this is part of me that maybe I need to work on,” you know?

My biggest influence is my father, who was an artist. He’s an incredible, incredible visual artist. He can draw like nobody I know. And he gave it all up when I was born, you know, to provide for me. And he always told me to pursue my art in full force. He is my biggest inspiration. Outside of that are playwrights like Tarell McCraney, who is my friends’ favorite, Stephen Adly Guirgis, and August Wilson. I owe a lot to these playwrights. Dominique Morrisseau, as well.

 

Do you have a favorite script, one that you would recommend to anyone?

Yes. I have many favorite plays, so I’m going to say what comes to the top of my mind. “Choir Boy,” by Tarell McCraney. It was a visceral experience. I saw it in Atlanta in 2013, and then it transferred to Broadway in 2018. I was a mess. Looking at it, I was crying the entire way through. And not because it was sad, it was so beautiful.

 

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