ARTISTS

FROM THE ARTISTS
Anna Deavere Smith.
Photo: Evgenia Eliseeva
You may think that all theater is based on Shakespeare, Ibsen, or other
canonical dramas, written by playwrights long deceased and presented by
a group of actors to a typically silent audience. Some theater, like many of
the shows produced at the A.R.T., seeks to engage the audience as active
participants, presenting current issues and characters who confront the
urgencies of their times and circumstances. In the From the Artists section
(pages 4-13), we explore the making of Notes from the Field: Doing Time in
Education and the legacy of activist theater, which asks the audience to step
up to its role and become an active part of the life on stage — and then to
carry that experience beyond the theater into the world.
Who is Anna Deavere Smith?
Actress, playwright, and teacher, Anna
Deavere Smith is said to have created
a new form of theater. She received the
National Humanities Medal, presented to
her by President Obama in 2013. She was
the 2015 Jefferson Lecturer for the National
Endowment for the Humanities, and a 2016
Guggenheim Fellow for Theatre Arts (for
the development of Notes from the Field:
Doing Time in Education). She is a MacArthur
Fellow, and received The Dorothy and Lillian
Gish Prize. She is the recipient of two Tony
nominations and two Obie Awards. She has
created over 15 one-person shows based
on hundreds of interviews, most of which
deal with social issues. Twilight: Los Angeles,
about the Los Angeles race riots of 1992,
was performed around the country and
on Broadway. Let Me Down Easy (seen at
the A.R.T. in 2008) focused on health care
in the U.S. In popular culture she has been
seen in “Nurse Jackie,” “Black-ish,” “The
West Wing,” The American President, Rachel
Getting Married, and Philadelphia. Books
include Letters to a Young Artist and Talk to
Me: Listening Between the Lines. She has a
number of honorary degrees including Yale,
University of Pennsylvania, Juilliard, Union
Theological Seminary, and The Radcliffe
Medal. She sits on the board of trustees for
the American Museum of National History,
the Aspen Institute, Grace Cathedral in San
Francisco, and the Museum of Modern Art in
New York. She is University Professor in the
department of Art & Public Policy at New
York University. She also directs the Institute
on the Arts and Civic Dialogue at New York
University.
FROM THE ARTISTS
NOTES FROM THE FIELD EDUCATIONAL TOOLKIT 4