Don't fail to listen to Anna Deavere Smith and Sarah Lewis!

New York Public Library podcast:

Sarah Lewis & Anna Deavere Smith on Inspiring Failures

A discussion of Sarah Lewis's The Rise: Creativity, the Gift of Failure, and the Search of Mastery

Philadanco's Joan Myers Brown among arts and humanities medal awardees

Philadanco founder, landscape architect to receive medal
by Stephan Salisbury, The Philadelphia Inquirer, July 4, 2013

Gish Prize goes to Anna Deavere Smith

Anna Deavere Smith Wins Gish Prize
by Patricia Cohen, The New York Times, January 17, 2013

On the border: Anna Deavere Smith

One Border, Many Sides

from interviews by Anna Deavere Smith

The New York Times, May 21, 2010

Ailey thoughts: My final show of 2009

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

Saturday, December 19, 8pm--New York City Center

In the opening stages of Judith Jamison's Among Us (Private Spaces: Public Places), I could barely take my eyes off Jamison's bold paintings fanning out above the stage. But since Among Us is a dance production, not simply pictures at an exhibition, I wish I could say that the portraits set on her "gallery-goer" dancers have similar pull and avoidance of cliché.

The "freshest" idea here--the Obama-like role played by Anthony Burrell in a section called "Precedent (President)"--seems not only out of place but also choreographically didactic and melodramatic. The personal and political complexity of America's first bi-racial, Black-identified president is so clearly something that all of us are still wrapping our brains around. Wouldn't it make sense to wait a bit and study the man and figure out how to render him in art in a way that isn't merely sentimental?

I enjoyed Antonio Douthit, Samuel Lee Roberts and Guillermo Asca--a frisky trio of homeboys checking out everyone who passed them by in a section that, curiously, sort of reminded me of Camille A. Brown's 2007 Ailey hit, The Groove to Nobody's Business.

In other segments, Douthit worked a fey-fabulous role as a snaky genie in skintight blue like something spliced in from a Geoffrey Holder fantasia. I'm imagining that this feather-crowned djinn, who appears here and there, now and again, must stand for the Spirit of Creativity. At the end, with the genie presiding, the cool, pumping, boogie-down music by composer ELEW (Eric Lewis) brings the disparate gallery-goers together in a kind of disco party. You have to hand it to Jamison--whose other sectional endings are fairly vague--for finding a way to pump the audience and send her ensemble out with a flourish.

Also on the program: Jamison's Hymn (1993), restaged by Masazumi Chaya and featuring Anna Deavere Smith, performing live, giving the company's oral history the brilliant Anna Deavere Smith treatment. The choreography comes securely, compassionately swathed in a few amazing stories, portraits in courage and dedication, rendered by the perceptive Smith, as well as charged performances. The Ailey folks sure know how to move you.

Speaking from the heart

Off Broadway Play ‘Let Me Down Easy’ Tackles Issues of Death
by Gina Kolata, The New York Times, November 9, 2009

The genius of Anna Deavere Smith

Just a quick note: You're going to Anna Deavere Smith's Let Me Down Easy, aren't you? The only right answer--unless you've already seen the show--is a resounding Yes!

Everyone should see this piece, especially since much of the heated debate around health care reform has been devoid of heart and soul. This brilliant performance--perhaps Smith's best, certainly her most affecting--reminds us of what's so often missing.

Let Me Down Easy runs through December 6 at 2econdStageTheatre.

World Science Fest 2 opens in NYC

Science Fair in the Cosmic Capital of the World
by Dennis Overbye, The New York Times, June 11, 2009

Music and Science, Reunited in a Swarm of Ants
by James R. Oestreich, The New York Times, June 11, 2009

World Science Festival -- June 10-14

The mutable body: Anna Deavere Smith

New York Times theater critic Charles Isherwood might well be correct in his assessment of Anna Deavere Smith's new piece, Let Me Down Easy, which runs through February 3 at New Haven's Long Wharf Theater. But any opportunity to see this chameleon-like performer work her consummate physical and vocal skills is worth it, and this time her topic is one close to dance-lovers' hearts--"the resiliency and vulnerability of the human body." Click here for more information and tickets.