In the Blood

In The Blood is a play written by Suzan-Lori Parks which premiered at The Joseph Papp Public Theater in 1999. Parks borrowed many aspects from Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1850 novel The Scarlet Letter, and wanted to create a play based on the novel. She originally wanted to call the play Fucking A, but scrapped the idea. She later wrote the story based on the main character from The Scarlet Letter, and turned the story into more modern era, and changed the title to In The Blood. She later wrote a different play that she did title Fucking A. Productions In The Blood, presented by The Public Theater, originally opened at the Susan Stein Shiva Theater on November 2, 1999 (previews), officially on November 22, 1999, and closed on December 19, 1999. Directed by David Esbjornson, the cast featured Charlayne Woodard as Hester, Rob Campbell, Gail Grate, Bruce MacVittie, Reggie Montgomery and Dierdre O'Connell. The play was a finalist for the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. She later won the Pulitzer Prize for another play, Topdog/Underdog. In The Blood was performed at the Edison Theater in Los Angeles on July 18, 2003. The play was directed by Laura Marchant.