Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of MaximumFun.org and is distributed by NPR.

It's Bullseye. I'm Jesse Thorn. My first guest this week is the Incredible Anna DeVier

Smith. She is an actor, playwright, educator, scholar. Basically one of the most accomplished

human beings in all of American theater. In fact, she sort of created a form of theater.

Her plays are a bit like documentaries. She conducts interviews, collects stories,

and presents her findings on stage, usually in the form of a solo act. 30 years ago, she

premiered her play Twilight Los Angeles, 1992. To prepare, Anna interviewed over 300 people

about the Rodney King beating and its aftermath. Police, bystanders, jurors, Angelinos from

all different backgrounds. And then she turned their words, their actual verbatim words,

into a show. In the original production, Anna played every part, representing each person

as closely as she could. And I honestly don't think that it is a stretch to say that

Twilight Los Angeles, 1992, was one of the most important stage productions of the 20th

century. Now 30 years later, that show has made its return to Los Angeles at the market

paper forum, where it first premiered in 1993. This time around, Twilight isn't a solo

act. There's a cast of five different ages, genders, and races. Each one plays some of the

characters that Anna played 30 years ago. Let's start things off with a clip from a film to

production of Twilight Los Angeles, 1992. It was shot for PBS back in 2001. In this scene,

Anitavir Smith recreates a speech given by Congresswoman Maxine Waters. It's a message to

President George H.W. Bush about the persistent discrimination that black man face in the United States.

Mr. President, we want our black men back on America's agenda. They've been dropped off of

everybody's statistics and data. They're not in school. They're not employed. They don't live

anywhere. They go from grandma to mama to girlfriend. And Mr. President, not everybody in the

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