Anna Deavere Smith’s Notes From The Field: Review, Pics, Video

One of the first things we learn in “Notes from the Field” — in a projection on the curtain — is that nearly six million voting-age people can’t vote in the 2016 presidential election because of state felon disenfranchisement laws.

Anna Deavere Smith  portrays 17  disparate characters with her usual dazzling virtuosity. It is her most diffuse and digressive work so far, less of a subject than an argument—that in the United States there is a school to prison “pipeline” for poor people and people of color.

Full review on HowlRound

Click on any photograph by Joan Marcus to see it enlarged

From “Brother”

CONGRESSMAN JOHN LEWIS
U.S. Representative (D-GA 5th District) Washington, D.C.

From “The Shakura Story”
NIYA KENNY
Student, Spring Valley High School Columbia, SC

From “Breaking the Box”
JAMAL-HARRISON BRYANT
Pastor and Founder of
Empowerment Temple AME Church
Spoken at the funeral of Freddie Gray, April 27, 2015

Author: New York Theater

Jonathan Mandell is a 3rd generation NYC journalist, who sees shows, reads plays, writes reviews and sometimes talks with people.

Leave a Reply