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Anna Deavere Smith
Actress / Playwright
Anna Deavere Smith is an actor, a teacher, a playwright, and the creator of an acclaimed series of one-woman plays based on her interviews with diverse voices from communities in crisis. She has won two Obie Awards, two Tony nominations for her play Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992, and a MacArthur Fellowship.
She was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for her play Fires in the Mirror. She has had roles in the films Philadelphia, An American President, The Human Stain, and Rent, and she has worked in television on The Practice, Presidio Med, and The West Wing. The founder and director of the Institute on the Arts and Civic Dialogue, she teaches at New York University and lives in New York City.
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A couple of athletes and Nelson Mandela.
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If our talents are distributed randomly, how do we use them fairly?
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Studying Shakespeare has given Anna Deavere Smith a deeper understanding of language and character.
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Anna Deavere Smith discusses the state of American theater and the lack of diversity both on stage and in the audience.
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Listening is the key to Anna Deavere Smith’s creative process.
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Anna Deavere Smith talks about the quirks of an individual’s language and voice.
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Anna Deavere Smith once got some good advice from Ethel Merman’s son, and it has stuck with her ever since.
Though she started off in linguistics, Anna Deavere Smith soon hit on theater as a way to study diversity and social change.
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As a child, Anna Deavere Smith attended an all-white summer camp, and felt out of place. Her young niece, fortunately, hasn’t had such an experience.
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Anna Deavere Smith discusses her childhood and the legacy of segregation.
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Anna Deavere Smith calls on us to take individual action.
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Anna Deavere Smith talks about the importance of collaborating across the boundaries of class, race, nation and language.
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Anna Deavere Smith on the nobility of struggle
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At the core of today’s big issues, Anna Deavere Smith says, is the question of justice.
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Anna Deavere Smith on the balance between the gifts of nature, and their just distribution.
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Anna Deavere Smith wants to know: what is the gap between understanding and action?
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Anna Deavere Smith takes her cues from Shakespeare’s wordsmithing.
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Anna Deavere Smith talks about storytelling and the importance of theater in the community.
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Anna Deavere Smith talks about acting and how she uses language as a guide to identity.