Anna Deavere Smith on Identity, Racism, and Disrupting the System with Her Work

Residency 1 playwright Anna Deavere Smith speaks to her work at Signature's first play reading for Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992. She and Michael Benjamin Washington (from Signature's 2019 production of Smith's Fires in the Mirror) evoke Ntozake Shange's poetic words about identity.
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Signature Theatre celebrates playwrights and gives them an artistic home. Signature makes an extended commitment to a playwright’s body of work, producing several plays by each resident writer and delivering an intimate and immersive journey into the playwright’s singular vision. In 2014 Signature became the first New York City company to receive the Regional Theater Tony Award®.
Led by Artistic Director Paige Evans and Executive Director Harold Wolpert, Signature serves its mission at The Pershing Square Signature Center. This three-theatre facility located on West 42nd Street was designed by Frank Gehry Architects to host Signature’s three distinct playwrights’ residencies and foster a cultural community.
At the Center, Signature continues its original Playwright-in-Residence model as Residency 1, a year-long intensive exploration of a single writer’s body of work. Residency 5, the only program of its kind, was launched at the Center to support multiple playwrights as they build bodies of work by guaranteeing each writer three productions over a five-year period. The Legacy Program, launched during Signature’s 10th Anniversary, invites writers from both residencies back for productions of premiere or earlier plays.
Through the Signature Ticket Initiative: A Generation of Access, Signature has also made an unprecedented commitment to making its productions accessible by underwriting the cost of the initial run tickets through 2031.
Founded in 1991 by James Houghton, Signature has presented entire seasons of the work of Edward Albee, Lee Blessing, Horton Foote, María Irene Fornés, Athol Fugard, Stephen Adly Guirgis, John Guare, A.R. Gurney, David Henry Hwang, Bill Irwin, Adrienne Kennedy, Tony Kushner, Romulus Linney, Charles Mee, Arthur Miller, Suzan-Lori Parks, Sam Shepard, Paula Vogel, Naomi Wallace, August Wilson, Lanford Wilson and a season celebrating the historic Negro Ensemble Company. Lynn Nottage is the current Residency 1 playwright. Signature’s Residency 5 playwrights are Annie Baker, Martha Clarke, Katori Hall, Quiara Alegría Hudes, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Kenneth Lonergan, Dave Malloy, Dominique Morisseau; Will Eno completed his Residency Five in 2016. Signature’s productions and its resident writers have been recognized with the Pulitzer Prize, Lucille Lortel, Obie, Drama Desk and AUDELCO awards, among many other distinctions.
Signature Theatre Company
The Pershing Square Signature Center
480 West 42nd Street
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[@knightc]

I'm reminded that she is among my very favorite writer-performers. I didn't know "Fires in the Mirror" was her 13th show, and she gained acclaim with it partly because it premiered on the same night as the start of the LA Riots in 1992. Thanks for sharing this excerpt. What was the meeting that this came from?

[@signatureinnyc]

Thank you for your comments! Anna Deavere Smith offered these insights from and about her work on June 8, 2020 to help process and contribute to conversations on racism and identity.

[@georgealexander7976]

TIME FOR MORE NOTES FROM THE FIELD!