Anna Deavere Smith Archives - Broadway Black

Twilight Los Angeles, 1992 BIPOC Theatre Night Oct 15 at Signature Theatre

Broadway Black — Tue, 12 Oct 2021 19:00:00 +0000

Broadway Black in collaboration with Signature Theatre hosts a BIPOC theatre night on October 15th, 2021 7:30 PM for Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992  by Anna Deavere Smith in the Pershing Square Signature Center (480 W 42nd St.)

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Use Code: NOBARRIERS to waive all fees. This performance is dedicated to inviting Black communities, Indigenous communities, and communities of color (BIPOC) to experience this piece together.

MacArthur Award-winner Tony Award-nominee Anna Deavere Smith continues her residency after Fires in the Mirror  with a powerful reimagining of Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992  featuring an ensemble cast, exploring racial and cultural conflict in America through Anna’s trademark documentary lens. 

Performances begin Oct 12th, 2021, and will continue until November 14th. The ensemble cast includes Elena Hurst, Wesley T. Jones, Francis Jue, Karl Kenzler, and Tiffany Rachelle Stewart.

The creative team includes Riccardo Hernández (Scenic Designer), Linda Cho (Costume Designer), Alan C. Edwards (Lighting Designer), Darron L West (Sound Designer), David Bengali (Projection Designer), Michael Leon Thomas (Movement Coach), Dawn-Elin Fraser (Dialect Coach), Ann James (Sensitivity Specialist), Charles M. Turner III (Production Stage Manager) and casting by Caparelliotis Casting and X Casting.

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Broadway Black in collaboration with Signature Theatre host BIPOC theatre night

GET TICKETS BY CLICKING HERE

One verdict can change the course of history. The news of the police officers’ acquittal in Rodney King’s police brutality case reverberated throughout the streets of Los Angeles. Variously called a “riot, a revolution, or a social explosion,” the events that followed the verdict drew worldwide attention. Playwright, actor and scholar Anna Deavere Smith responded artistically by dissecting the anatomy of the unrest. She interviewed over 350 Los Angelinos in preparation for the performance. Declared a “rich, panoramic canvas of a national trauma” by The New York Times, Smith’s transformative study of the 1992 L.A. civil unrest reveals the fault lines that set the city ablaze. Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 is equal parts meticulously researched reportage and stirring cry for reform.

We ask that if you do not identify as BIPOC, you look for a different performance to attend, and allow this to remain a space for the shared experience of BIPOC communities.

This production contains footage of extreme racialized violence and instances of racialized and discriminatory language, which some may find disturbing.

Proof of COVID-19 vaccination and masks are required for all who enter the Center, both audience and staff. Learn more in their COVID-19 Updates.

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Broadway Stars United In Song On PBS New Year’s Eve

Tremaine A. Price — Wed, 16 Dec 2020 16:38:47 +0000

As 2020 comes to a close, we are all waiting with bated breath to see what could be on the other side of the new year. After this year forced us to change our way of life in every sense of the word, we rose to the occasion and strengthened our communities with love and support. One such community has been the Broadway community that continued to engage its audience with special virtual programming. To cap off a challenging year, PBS will air a pre-recorded concert on December 31, 2020 at 8:00pm (with a rebroadcast again at 9:30pm).

The concert, United in Song: Celebrating the Resilience of America, was filmed in front of a socially-distanced audience from George Washington’s home in Mt. Vernon. Special guests will include 6-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald (Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill) , Tony winner Brian Stokes Mitchell (Shuffle Along), Tony nominee Anna Deavere Smith (Twilight, Los Angeles 1992), Grammy winner Patti LaBelle (After Midnight), and more.

The concert will simultaneously stream at PBS.org or on the PBS Video App.

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Playwright Alleges Racist Treatment at Berkeley Repertory Theatre

Broadway Black — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 19:57:18 +0000

Judy Juanita, an Oakland playwright, was invited by a member of the Berkeley Repertory Theatre staff to the final dress rehearsal of Anna Deavere Smith’s “Notes From the Field: Doing Time in Education, the California Chapter.” Unfortunately, once at the theatre, Juanita and her friends (who are all Black), were told by ushers to leave their reserved seats, according to a Facebook post by Juanita, first reported by the East Bay Express.

According to an apology letter issued by the theatre, an usher believed that Juanita’s seat was reserved for a technical crew member. Juanita posted on Facebook that she was initially refused to be seated and that multiple ushers then told her to leave her seat, even after she explained that her friend, who is white member of the theatre staff, had reserved their seats.

In the theater’s apology letter, Polly Winograd Ikonen, director of marketing, communications and patron engagement for the theater, wrote, ironically, that the play’s message needed to reach an audience that is racially, ethnically and socioeconomically diverse. The theater also expressed in the letter that it has one of the largest and most successful examples of audience diversity among arts organizations nationally.

In an effort to make this play about how Black youth transition from school into crime more accessible to those who have experienced the “school-to-prison pipeline,” the theater gave away 1,000 free tickets and 1,000 half-price tickets. According to Ikonen, the theater has many programs on an ongoing basis to reach “as wide of an audience as possible.”

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Playwright Alleges Racist Treatment at Berkeley Repertory Theatre

Broadway Black — Tue, 28 Jul 2015 22:04:19 +0000

Oakland playwright Judy Juanita alleged being subjected to racist treatment at a recent performance at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. As reported by the East Bay Express, Juanita was invited by a member of the theater staff to the final dress rehearsal of Anna Deavere Smith’s Notes From the Field: Doing Time in Education, the California Chapter. Prior to the performance, Juanita and her friends (who are all Black) were told by ushers to leave their reserved seats, according to a Facebook post by Juanita.

In her own words, here’s what happened:

My friend K., who happens to be a white, Mohawk-wearing lesbian, invited me and four other blacks. K. stayed in the lobby waiting for another friend but directed three of us upstairs, center front row – great seats! A young white female usher looked at our tix, stamped general admission, and refused to seat us. Okay. We politely pointed out the reserved seats. No go. Okay. We waited a bit, saw two friends (black) sitting in the seats and went in. As soon as we got seated, the usher came over to unseat all five of us. We showed her K.’s names on the reserved signs on each seat. She said the seats were for the tech crew. We begged to differ, politely. She walked away. Momentarily, a young black female usher came over and politely asked us to move. We politely told her about K. She was adamant that we needed to sit somewhere else, but we adamantly pointed to K.’s name on the seats.

Ironically, the production is about how black youth transition from school into crime, and the theatre wanted to make the public aware of the “school-to-prison pipeline,” and gave away 1,000 free tickets and 1,000 half-price tickets, said Polly Winograd Ikonen, Director of Marketing, Communications and Patron Engagement for the theater.

Berkeley Repertory Theatre has since issued an apology letter, which stated that an usher believed that Juanita’s seat was reserved for a technical crew member. Juanita posted on Facebook that she was initially refused to be seated, and multiple ushers then told her to leave her seat, even after she explained that her friend, who is white, had reserved their seats. Ikonen also wrote in the letter that the play’s message needed to reach a diverse audience. The theater also expressed in the letter that it has one of the largest and most successful examples of audience diversity among arts organizations nationally. According to Ikonen, the theater has many programs on an ongoing basis to reach “as wide of an audience as possible.”

The theatre did the right thing by issuing an apology to Juanita, however, what might also be helpful is to train staff on customer service. Perhaps giving Juanita and her friends the benefit of the doubt instead of outright refusing to seat them would have spared both the theatre and the ushers the embarrassment of being seen as racists.

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Anna Deavere Smith Challenges School-To-Prison Pipeline In New Play; Notes From The Field

Broadway Black — Mon, 20 Jul 2015 22:47:42 +0000

Anna Deavere Smith is perhaps one of the greatest artists of our time. She has recently created a piece that speaks to one of the greatest issues of our time: the school-to-prison pipeline: what happens when children of color are suspended, expelled and arrested out of proportion to their numbers in the student population, placing them on a path to juvenile hall or prison. Notes From The Field: Doing Time in Education, The California Chapter is written and performed by Smith and accompanied by jazz bassist, bandleader and composer Marcus Shelby. It is taken from interviews she had with almost 150 teachers, students, cops and criminals affected by this social and racial imbalance in Northern California and throughout the nation. This issue is intensely personal for Ms. Smith; her mother was a teacher at a school in am economically disadvantaged Baltimore neighborhood. Notes From The Field seeks to display the staggering statistics as relatable human beings and literally engage audiences not only to be more informed, but to become catalysts for real change. In fact, the second Act turns the tables on the audiences and solicits their participation in the discourse.

Anna Deavere Smith is no stranger to using art for social change. Her piece on the racial tensions sparking the LA riots, Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992, was nominated for a Tony Award in 1994. Fires in the Mirror, based on the 1991 Crown Heights riots, won a Drama Desk Award. The 2009 Off-Broadway production Let Me Down Easy challenged the American healthcare system. Now Smith brings her “documentary theatre” to the front lines of this nation’s educational inequities.
Anna Deavere Smith’s Notes From The Field: Doing Time in Education, The California Chapter is playing now until August 2nd at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. For tickets and more information visit www.berkeleyrep.org

Here is your personal invitation to the production:

Created, written, and performed by Anna Deavere Smith / Music composed and performed by Marcus Shelby / Directed by Leah C. Gardiner
Special Presentation / Roda Theatre / July 11–August 2, 2015

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PBS to Air Encore of Anna Deavere Smith’s TWILIGHT: LOS ANGELES

Jazmine Harper-Davis — Mon, 01 Jun 2015 16:56:44 +0000

Do you have plans on June 12? (After you binge watch the third season of Netflix’s’ OITNB of course). Whatever they are, they need to include the viewing of Marc Levin’s film adaption of Anna Deavere Smith’s Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992, an innovate piece of theater exploring the 1992 Los Angles riots and its lasting affects as told from multiple points of view.

It has been said that Smith created a new form of theater. When granted the prestigious MacArthur Award, her work was described as “a blend of theatrical art, social commentary, journalism, and intimate reverie”; the re-aring of this film couldn’t be timelier. In the film adaptation, Smith’s performance is intertwined footage and interviews with rioters and victims from the 1992 riots that took place in Los Angeles following the Rodney King trial. The encore showing marks the 23^rd anniversary of those riots, with Smith providing a brand new introduction to her piece that aligns with the current state of race relations and outrage against police brutality in the United States. The themes of rage, sorrow, loss and hope that are prevalent in the film still resonate with us today.

Smith is no stranger to creating a blend of social commentary and theatrical art. Her play, Fires in the Mirror (1991), went in depth about the Crown Heights riots in regards to racial relations between black and Jewish neighborhoods, which was also broadcast on PBS. Most recently PBS aired Let Me Down Easy in 2012, another Smith piece that examined human resilience though the national debate on health care.

Twilight: Los Angeles originally aired on PBS in 2001, and once again in 2012. On April 29, 2015 it was made available online on PBS’ THIRTEEN’s website. It was also performed on Broadway in 1994, directed by George C. Wolfe (Lucky Guy), staring Smith herself. PBS praises her for giving every “character” depth and staying true to each interviewee’s story (using only their words and duplicating their speech patterns, mannerisms, dress, and attitudes). Smith’s Twilight: Los Angles played on Broadway and around the country. It received two Tony Nominations, an Obie, Drama Desk Award, the New York Drama Critics Circle’s Special Citation and a number of other honors.

Twilight: Los Angles will air on PBS June 12 at 9 p.m. ET (check your local listings), as apart of THIRTEEN’s Great Performances.

I know my reminder will be set, will yours?

Twilight: Los Angeles

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