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Anna Deavere Smith Opens in Notes From the Field

Smith’s new solo show is directed by Leonard Foglia at Second Stage Theatre.

Anna Deavere Smith celebrates her opening night in Notes From the Field.
Anna Deavere Smith celebrates her opening night in Notes From the Field.
(© Jenny Anderson)

Second Stage Theatre celebrated the opening night of Anna Deavere Smith's Notes From the Field on November 2. Previews began on October 15.

Anna Deavere Smith shares a photo with her show's composer, Marcus Shelby.
Anna Deavere Smith shares a photo with her show's composer, Marcus Shelby.
(© Jenny Anderson)

Directed by Leonard Foglia with music composed and performed by Marcus Shelby, Notes From the Field traces the connections between America’s education system and its mass incarceration crisis. In the first act, Smith portrays the students, parents, teachers, and administrators caught in America’s school-to-prison pipeline. The second act includes facilitated discussions, asking audiences to evaluate their own position in a network of difficult histories and devastating social policies.

Guests at the opening-night festivities included opera icon Renée Fleming, who here poses with Anna Deavere Smith.
Guests at the opening-night festivities included opera icon Renée Fleming.
(© Jenny Anderson)

Smith received the National Humanities Medal, presented to her by President Obama in 2013, and was the 2015 Jefferson Lecturer for the National Endowment for the Humanities. She was also a 2016 Guggenheim Fellow for Theatre Arts for the development of Notes From the Field and a MacArthur Fellow. She received the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize as well as two Tony nominations for writing and performing her play Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992. Her play Fires in the Mirror, seen at A.R.T. in 1992, was a runner-up for the Pulitzer Prize.

Anna Deavere Smith takes a photo with actor Tony Goldwyn.
Anna Deavere Smith takes a photo with actor Tony Goldwyn.
(© Jenny Anderson)

For tickets to the New York run, click here.

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Notes From the Field

Closed: December 18, 2016