Anna Deavere Smith plays real Americans on stage - and she shares her lessons

It's Been a Minute

NPR

News Commentary, Society & Culture, News, Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality

4.6 • 8.8K Ratings

🗓️ 16 January 2024

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Anna Deavere Smith is an acclaimed actress, journalist, and playwright. She's a pioneer of what's known as 'verbatim theater,' which is performance based on conversations and interviews with real people. But after decades of becoming thousands of Americans on stage, what has she learned about our nation? Host Brittany Luse sat down with Deavere Smith in studio to hear her unique perspective about who — and what — America is.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for NPR and the following message come from SAP Concur, a leading brand for integrated travel expense and invoice management solutions.
0:09.0	With SAP Concur solutions, you'll be ready to take on whatever the market throws at you next. Learn more at concur.com.
0:17.0	Hello hello. I'm Brittany Loose and you're listening to It's Been a Minute from NPR,
0:24.8	a show about what's going on in culture and why it doesn't happen by accident. I've been a fan of my guest today for nearly half my life. Anna Devere Smith is an actress, journalist, and playwright.
0:46.0	Many of you may have seen her as Rainbow's mom on Blackish.
0:49.0	Andre, join us.
0:51.0	Let me warm that heart with the light from within. I hate when my heart's warm.
0:55.7	Or Nancy from the West Wing. Let's attack.
0:59.2	Ooh.
1:00.2	Kumar, let's recommend to the president that we attack.
1:03.0	Why?
1:04.0	Because I've had it.
1:05.0	But her most powerful work, in my opinion, lives in the theater, where she plays real life people.
1:11.0	Some man wrote me a letter to Mrs. Young. I saw your
1:19.6	interview on television. As far as I'm concerned, you are an for Baitum Theater, where the character's lines come straight from interviews,
1:34.2	transcripts, or recordings. But what does that look like? Basically, Anna
1:38.6	interviews real people, selects their most powerful moments,
1:42.5	then studies their words, speech patterns, and body language
1:46.3	so that she can sort of become them.
1:49.5	My grandfather had said when I was a girl, if you say a word often enough, it becomes
1:54.7	you.
1:55.7	I decided to really study how the people around me spoke.
	...

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