Events Calendar

Anna Deavere Smith Engaging the World: The Role of the Artist in Society

Admission is free. Reservations required. To RSVP, visit http://web-app.usc.edu/ws/eo2/calendar/113/event/873323 beginning Tuesday, September 14, at 9 a.m.

Reception to follow.

Anna Deavere Smith, hailed by Newsweek as “the most exciting individual in American theatre,” will be at USC to celebrate the inauguration of USC’s eleventh president, C. L. Max Nikias. In a dynamic presentation, Smith will interweave performance and dialogue, stepping in and out of character to illuminate the impact of arts in society.

Anna Deavere Smith is a playwright, actor and professor who uses her singular brand of theatre to explore issues of community, character and diversity in America. She was awarded the prestigious MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant for creating “a new form of theatre—a blend of theatrical art, social commentary, journalism and intimate reverie.” Smith has a recurring role on the new Showtime series Nurse Jackie, played National Security Advisor Nancy McNally on NBC’s The West Wing and has appeared in such films as Rachel Getting Married, Philadelphia and The American President. She is perhaps best known as the author and performer of two Obie Award–winning one-woman plays about racial tensions in America—Fires in the Mirror and Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992. Interviewing subjects from all walks of life, Smith recreates their words in performance, transforming herself into an astonishing number of characters. A tenured professor at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, Smith founded the Institute on the Arts and Civic Dialogue at Harvard (now at NYU). Her latest book is Letters to a Young Artist: Straight-up Advice on Making a Life in the Arts, and her most recent play, Let Me Down Easy, explores the resilience and vulnerability of the human body.

For further information on this event:
visionsandvoices@usc.edu

Location: Ronald Tutor Campus Center (TCC) - Grand Ballroom

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Daria Yudacufski