Anna Deavere Smith
Presenting the annual Frank Porter Graham Lecture, Anna Deavere Smith is an actress, playwright, and author. It has been said that she created a new form of theater. When granted the prestigious MacArthur Fellow Award, her work was described as "a blend of theatrical art, social commentary, journalism, and intimate reverie."
Smith has performed in film and television as well as on stage. She is probably most recognizable in popular culture as Nancy McNally, the National Security Advisor on NBC's former hit, The West Wing. However, it is Smith’s work in the theater that has been her intellectual focus. Looking at controversial events from multiple points of view, Smith's theater combines the journalistic technique of interviewing her subjects with the art of interpreting their words through her performance. She conducts hundreds of interviews while creating a play. Using verbatim excerpts of the interviews, she has performed up to as many as 46 people in the course of an evening.
Smith is currently developing a new play in the On The Road series called Let Me Down Easy. Its subject is the resilience and vulnerability of the human body. Her latest book is Letters to a Young Artist (Vintage Random House). Other books include Talk to Me: Listening Between the Lines and publications of her plays, Twilight, House Arrest, and Piano. Her articles and writings have appeared in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, The New Yorker, O Magazine, O Home, Elle, The Atlantic, A Public Space, Essence, Fortune, and The Drama Review.
