Incensed!

Robert Jeffrey (Jefferson) Parson Born in Boston, September 3, 1941 BA, Columbia University, 1963, English; Alexander Proudfit Fellowship to Columbia University Graduate English Program, 1963 MA, Columbia University, English and Comparative Literature, 1967.

Minored in theater with focus on Shakespeare, and classical theatre. Most influenced by studying modern drama with renowned critic and Bertold Brecht translator Eric Bentley. Wrote Masters thesis on the poetry of Wallace Stevens.

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Robert Jeffrey (Jefferson) Parson Born in Boston, September 3, 1941 BA, Columbia University, 1963, English; Alexander Proudfit Fellowship to Columbia University Graduate English Program, 1963 MA, Columbia University, English and Comparative Literature, 1967.

Minored in theater with focus on Shakespeare, and classical theatre. Most influenced by studying modern drama with renowned critic and Bertold Brecht translator Eric Bentley. Wrote Masters thesis on the poetry of Wallace Stevens.

Acted at Columbia College, University of Virginia, community theaters in Nashville, Tenn., and Northern California, and at a theater workshop in Southern Oregon, 1962-present.

Taught English and drama at Fisk University, where also directed Leroy Jones’ [Amiri Baraka’s] “The Dutchman,” 1965-67. Briefly, attended the Stella Adler School of Acting, NYC, 1968.

[I am a multi-modal artist. After diverse careers in social work, truck loading, teaching, editing, sculpting (in metal and stone), architectural design and construction, tree nursery creation and management, organic gardening, tile setting, and mosaic design, I began to write—first as a song writer, then as a playwright.]

Songwriting: Wrote, sang and played guitar on three albums of original songs: “The Baby and the Bathwater: New Songs for Peace and Justice,” a heartfelt lyrical response to the atrocities of the Bush, Jr. administration—from the Iraq War to the deplorably inadequate treatment of the victims of Hurricane Katrina. © 20006.; “Jefferson’s Laments: For Liberties Taken and Loves Forsaken,” raucous and melodic examinations of 9-ll, political assassinations, Guantanamo Prison, genocide of an indigenous tribe and other contemporary outrages, as well as loving vows and prayers, and regrets for unrequited love. © 2008; “Hillbilly Hook,” ballads, elegies, laments, country blues and love songs. © 20013. [Music available on Reverbnation/jeffersonparsonmusic]

Playwriting: Wrote, co-directed, acted in, sang and played banjo in, “Defenders of the Holy Grove,” a one-act play about the abrogation of nature’s and communities’ rights by politicians and corporations—produced at the Mateel Community Center in Redway, CA, 20014. Wrote “The Last American Woodshed (2014), the first play in “Pig Tails,” a trilogy about the power elite in America;“Cinder Ruler,” a takeoff on the ostensibly egalitarian but basically classist fantasy “Cinderella”; and “Robbin’ da Hood,” about the Clintons’ stealing from the poor and giving to the rich“ ”Wrote “The Tooth,” a one-act play about environmental and cultural devastation, 20015. Wrote “A True Man: A Monolog of President Truman on the Eve of his Decision to Drop an Atomic Bomb on Japan, 2015. Wrote “BOOMERANG!”, a full-length play about US “killer drones” and their repercussions, 2014-15.

[In reviewing the latter, American theater scholar Dr. Susan Letzler Cole praised my “terrific sense of theater as theater,”—exemplified by “the creation of drone as character, the asides to the audience, the distinct (and felt) characterization, the doubling of Marsha and the President’s Wife, the deft scene divisions” and my “feminist approach to women characters.”]

Wrote “Otis in Catalunya” (dramatic reading at Can Serrat, Barcelona, 9/16 Wrote “Wake Up Times Three: A Trilogy on Climate Change: I. Heartbreak and Ecocide: A Fracking Tragedy, (dramatic reading in Ashland, OR, 8/17), II. Antelope Girl: On the Edge of Extinction, and III. Reaching for High Ground: A Marshall Island Dream of Survival, 2015-17 (dramatic readings of scenes from all three for teachers from Sweden at CanSerrat, Barcelona artist residency and the public library in El Bruc, Barelona, 9/16.

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