Anna Deavere Smith’s Living Theater

Life and literature reflect each other in interesting ways. As the trial begins for Amber Guyger (the Dallas police officer charged with killing Botham Jean in his own apartment last September), I have been led to read books about the aftermath of previous trials and grand jury decisions involving police officers, and how they affected the populace of their cities.

Lately I read the 2018 play Notes from the Field by Anna Deavere Smith.  I had known about Anna Deavere Smith as an actress, specifically as the hospital administrator on Nurse Jackie.  This play deals with the school to prison pipeline and its disproportionate effects on black and Indigenous people of color.  Ms. Smith wrote the play after interviewing over 250 people in different parts of the United States. Her transcripts include experiences from people around the Freddie Grey death, an Indigenous man who started getting in trouble in school and ended up in prison, and Bree Newsome who pulled down the confederate flag in South Carolina, together with many other moving stories. These varied voices and stories are presented in the speakers’ own words, which are interpreted by Smith herself in her stage productions. To see just how Smith’s “verbatim theatre” embodies these real world characters, check out Anna Deavere Smith: Four American Characters, in which the performer gives life to author Studs Terkel, convict Paulette Jenkins, a Korean shopkeeper and a bull rider.

Other works by Anna Deavere Smith available through the library include Let Me Down Easy on healthcare, House Arrest: A Search for American Character in and Around the White House, Past and Present; and, Piano: Two Plays, about past Presidents, Twilight Los Angeles, 1992 on the Road: A Search for American Character about the LA Riots, and Fires in the Mirror: Crown Heights, Brooklyn, and Other Identities, about Crown Heights racial riots in 1991. With their juxtapositions of varied and often opposing viewpoints around a given topic, Smith’s plays make excellent reading even for those who seldom read plays.

     ~ Pam H.