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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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1 min
At the core of today’s big issues, Anna Deavere Smith says, is the question of justice.
3 min
Anna Deavere Smith on the balance between the gifts of nature, and their just distribution.
3 min
Anna Deavere Smith wants to know: what is the gap between understanding and action?
4 min
Anna Deavere Smith takes her cues from Shakespeare’s wordsmithing.
5 min
Anna Deavere Smith talks about storytelling and the importance of theater in the community.
19 min
Anna Deavere Smith talks about acting and how she uses language as a guide to identity.
10 min
Anna Deavere Smith recalls her childhood in segregated Baltimore, and how she found her way out West and into the theater.