L.A. playwright gets N.Y. chair

It looks like the Big Orange is soon to lose another playwright to the Big Apple. Suzan-Lori Parks, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright (“Topdog/Underdog”), has been awarded the first Master Writer Chair at the Public Theater in New York City.

Funded by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the full-salaried post affords the chosen writer the chance to develop his or her work using the resources of the Public Theater and to participate in “the artistic life of the theater.”

Parks was not available for comment, and a Public Theater spokesman said he had no information on whether the playwright, a resident of Venice and founder of the dramatic writing program at CalArts, would remain involved in Los Angeles projects or had plans to return to L.A. after her East Coast stint as Master Writer is over.

-- Diane Haithman