Anna Deavere Smith
Anna Deavere Smith | |
---|---|
Born | [1] Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. | September 18, 1950
Education | Arcadia University (BA) American Conservatory Theater (MFA) |
Occupation(s) | Actress, playwright, professor |
Website | Official website Projects website |
Anna Deavere Smith (born September 18, 1950) is an American actress, playwright, and professor. She is known for her roles as National Security Advisor Dr. Nancy McNally in The West Wing (2000–06), hospital administrator Gloria Akalitus in the Showtime series Nurse Jackie (2009–15), and as U.S. District Court Clerk Tina Krissman on the ABC show For the People (2018–19).
Smith is a recipient of The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize (2013). In 2015 she was selected as the Jefferson Lecturer by the National Endowment for the Humanities. She is the founding director of the Institute on the Arts and Civic Dialogue at New York University.[2][3]
Early life
Smith was born in 1950 into an African-American family in
Smith studied acting at Beaver College (now
Career
Theatre
At the beginning of her career, Smith appeared in a wide range of stage productions, including the role of
Smith is best known as a playwright and actress for her "
Smith's plays House Arrest (2000) and Let Me Down Easy (2008) were also created in this style. Let Me Down Easy, which explored the resiliency and vulnerability of the human body, debuted at the
Smith debuted her one-woman play The Arizona Project in Phoenix, Arizona, in November 2008. The piece, which explored "women's relationships to justice and the law," was commissioned by Bruce Ferguson, director of Future Arts Research (F.A.R.), a new artist-driven research program at Arizona State University in Phoenix.[18]
In 2009, Smith was an artist-in-residence with the Center for American Progress.[19]
In Spring 2012, Smith was the first artist-in-residence at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, a program founded by the Very Rev Jane Shaw, Dean of Grace Cathedral, who shared Smith's vision of "bringing together art and religion".[20][21][22]
Commissioned by Grace Cathedral and the Cockayne Fund, Smith wrote and performed the play, On Grace, based on interviews relating to the meaning of God's grace.[23][24] The performances were accompanied by American cellist Joshua Roman.[25]
Film and television
Smith has appeared in several films, including Philadelphia (1993), Dave (1993), The American President (1995), Rent (2005), and Rachel Getting Married (2008).
She had recurring roles in the TV series
In February 2014, Smith appeared as a mentor in Anna Deavere Smith: A YoungArts Masterclass, part of the HBO documentary series Masterclass.[27]
In 2015, Smith appeared as a guest of Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., on the PBS television show Finding Your Roots. Her ancestry in America was revealed to her for the first time. She was descended from a long line of free people of color. The most striking facts were linked to her great-great-grandfather, Basil Biggs, who was born in 1820 in Maryland. He and his wife Mary were listed in the 1850 U.S. census to be free. His occupation was listed as veterinarian. In 1858, he moved his wife and four children to Pennsylvania, and chose to settle in Gettysburg. Another newsworthy article was found in The Cleveland Gazette (1892), which referred to Basil Biggs as the "wealthiest Afro-American in Gettysburg," mentioning his great home on 120 acres.[28] 41% of Smith's European ancestry is from Great Britain, with remote Scandinavian, Finnish, Russian, Italian, and Greek.[29]
In early 2017, Smith worked with
In 2022, Smith played the supporting role of Maud in the Netflix series Inventing Anna.
Teacher
Smith teaches in the Department of Art & Public Policy at the
Author
In 2000, Smith published her first book, Talk to Me: Travels in Media and Politics, through Random House. (It was published in paperback in 2001.) In 2006, she released Letters to a Young Artist: Straight-up Advice on Making a Life in the Arts – For Actors, Performers, Writers, and Artists of Every Kind.[30]
Honors
As a dramatist, Smith was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1993 for Fires in the Mirror, which won her a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding One-Person Show.[31] She was nominated for two Tony Awards in 1994 for Twilight: one for Best Actress and another for Best Play.[9] The play won her a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance and a Theatre World Award.[32][33]
Smith was one of the 1996 recipients of the
She has received honorary degrees from
The United Solo Theatre Festival board honored her with the award for outstanding solo performer during the inaugural edition in November 2010.[37]
Smith won The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize (2013), one of the richest prizes in the American arts with a remuneration of $300,000.[38]
In 2013, she received the 2012 National Humanities Medal from President Barack Obama.[39] In 2015 the National Endowment for the Humanities selected her for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities, delivering a lecture entitled "On the Road: A Search for American Character".[40][41]
She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2019.[42]
Works
Film
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1982 | Soup for One | Deborah | |
1983 | Touched | Switch Board Operator | |
1987 | Unfinished Business | Anna | |
1993 | Dave | Mrs. Travis | |
1993 | Philadelphia | Anthea Burton | |
1995 | The American President | Robin McCall | |
2000 | Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 | Various | Writer and producer; adaptation of Smith's 1994 play |
2003 | The Human Stain | Mrs. Silk | |
2004 | The Manchurian Candidate | Political pundit | |
2005 | Cry_Wolf | Headmaster Tinsley | |
2005 | Rent | Mrs. Jefferson | |
2007 | The Kingdom | Maricella Canavesio | |
2007 | Life Support | Mrs. Wallace | |
2008 | Rachel Getting Married | Carol | |
2010 | Seizing Justice: The Greensboro 4 | Narrator | |
2018 | Can You Ever Forgive Me?
|
Elaine | |
2021 | Flora & Ulysses | Dr. Meescham | |
2021 | Here Today[43] | Dr. Vidor | |
2023 | Ghosted | Claudia Yates |
Television
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1983 | All My Children | Hazel | |
1997 | American Experience | Narrator | Episode: "Hawaii's Last Queen" |
2000 | The Practice | Kate Brunner | 4 episodes |
2000–2006 | The West Wing | Dr. Nancy McNally
|
20 episodes |
2001 | 100 Centre Street | Ms. Davis | Episode: "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished" |
2001 | Life 360 | Herself | Episode: "Six Degrees of Separation" |
2002 | Presidio Med | Dr. Letty Jordan | 4 episodes |
2009–2015 | Nurse Jackie | Gloria Akalitus | 78 episodes |
2013 | The Surgeon General | Vice President | TV movie |
2014 | Anna Deavere Smith: A YoungArts Masterclass | Herself / Mentor | Documentary |
2015–2022 | Black-ish | Alicia | 10 episodes |
2015 | Madam Secretary | Attorney General Mary Campbell | Episode: "Tamerlane" |
2016 | Law & Order: Special Victims Unit | Warden Lucille Fenton | Episode: "Nationwide Manhunt"[44] |
2016 | Legends of Tomorrow | Chay-Ara (19th century incarnation) | Episode: "The Magnificent Eight" |
2016 | BoJack Horseman | Betty Bruce | Episode: "Stop the Presses" |
2016 | Berlin Station | Polygraph Examiner | Episode: "False Negative" |
2018–2019 | For the People | Tina Krissman | 20 episodes |
2020 | A West Wing Special to Benefit When We All Vote | Nancy McNally | TV special |
2022 | Inventing Anna | Maud | 8 episodes |
Stage
Year | Title | Role | Location | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1974 | Horatio | The savage | American Conservatory Theater | |
1976 | Alma, the Ghost of Spring Street | Marie Laveau | La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club | |
1980 | Mother Courage and Her Children | Kiowa woman / Their children | New York Shakespeare Festival
|
|
1982–83 | On the Road | Clear Space Theatre Berkeley Repertory Theatre |
||
1983 | The Merry Wives of Windsor | Mistress Quickly | Off-Broadway | |
A Birthday Party and Aunt Julia's Shoes | Ward-Nasse Gallery | Original poems | ||
Tartuffe | Doreen | Geva Theatre Center | ||
1984 | Charlayne Hunter Gault | Ward-Nasse Gallery | ||
Aye, Aye, Aye, I'm Integrated | The American Place Theatre | |||
1985 | Building Bridges, Not Walls | National Conference of Women and the Law | ||
1986 | On the Road, ACT | American Conservatory Theater | ||
1988 | Voices of Bay Area Women | Phoenix Theatre, San Francisco American Conservatory Theater |
||
1988 | Chlorophyll Post-Modernism and the Mother Goddess / A Conversation | Hahn Cosmopolitan Theatre | ||
1992 | Fires in the Mirror | Various | The Public Theater | Writer; one-woman show
|
1994 | Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 | Various | Cort Theatre
|
Writer; one-woman show |
1997, 1999 | House Arrest | Arena Stage Mark Taper Forum |
Writer | |
2008 | The Arizona Project | Various | Herberger Theater Center | Writer; one-woman show |
2008–10 | Let Me Down Easy | Various | Second Stage Theatre
|
Writer; one-woman show |
2014 | On Grace | Various | Harris Theater | Writer; collaboration with Joshua Roman |
2015 | Reclaiming Grace in the Face of Adversity[45] | Various | One-woman show | |
Never Givin' Up[46] | The Broad Stage | One-woman show | ||
Notes from the Field: Doing Time in Education — The California Chapter[47] | Various | Berkeley Repertory Theatre | One-woman show | |
2016 | Notes from the Field: Doing Time in Education[48] | Various | American Repertory Theatre
|
One-woman show |
Second Stage Theatre
|
One-woman show Special Citation from the Obie Awards
|
Bibliography
- Talk to Me: Travels in Media and Politics. New York: Random House. 2000. ISBN 978-0-3755-0150-0.
- Letters to a Young Artist: Straight-up Advice on Making a Life in the Arts – For Actors, Performers, Writers, and Artists of Every Kind. New York: Random House. 2006. ISBN 978-1-4000-3238-9.
References
- ^ "Anna Deavere Smith". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved March 2, 2024.
- S2CID 57572160.
- ^ "About the IACD". Archived from the original on June 17, 2019. Retrieved August 3, 2018.
- ^ Wynn Rousuck, J. (April 25, 1993). "Anna Deavere Smith brings play to public TV". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
- ^ "Smith, Anna Y." The Baltimore Sun. September 19, 2003. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
- ^ OCLC 928889448.: 115–120
- ^ Arena Stage. Archived from the originalon March 8, 2014. Retrieved March 8, 2014.
- ^ Wynn Rousuck, J. (February 10, 1999). "Making right from wrongs". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
- ^ a b c Ferington, Esther. "Anna Deavere Smith". National Endowment for the Humanities. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
- ^ Sterritt, David (July 21, 1983). "How many liberties can you take with the Bard?". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
- Daily News. New York.
- ^ a b Johnson, Reed (April 25, 2012). "Anna Deavere Smith revisits 'Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
- ^ Lipton, Brian Scott (December 7, 2007). "Anna Deavere Smith's Let Me Down Easy to Premiere at Long Wharf". Theater Mania. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
- ^ "American Repertory Theater presents Let Me Down Easy written and performed by Anna Deavere Smith". American Repertory Theater. August 4, 2008. Retrieved February 21, 2014.
- ^ Healy, Patrick (April 7, 2009). "Playwright Finds a New Stage Home in New York". The New York Times. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
- ^ "'Let Me Down Easy Reviews" criticometer.blogspot.com, October 8, 2009.
- The Huffington Post. Retrieved January 8, 2009.
- ^ Jones, Kenneth (November 5, 2008). "Anna Deavere Smith's Arizona Project, About Women in Justice System, Dawns in AZ Nov. 5". Playbill. Archived from the original on January 3, 2014. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
- ^ "Anna Deavere Smith Joins the Center for American Progress as Artist-In-Residence". Center for American Progress. April 27, 2009. Retrieved February 21, 2014.
- ^ Harmanci, Reyhan (February 10, 2012). "Mixing Art and Religion for a Loving Reunion". The New York Times. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
- ^ Dusenbery, Lisa (December 16, 2011). "Anna Deavere Smith at Grace Cathedral". The Rumpus. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
- ^ Krasny, Michael, "Art and Spirituality at Grace Cathedral" Archived January 3, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, Forum with Michael Krasny, KQED, February 1, 2012
- ^ "Announcing Our First Artist in Residence: Anna Deavere Smith" Archived January 3, 2014, at the Wayback Machine gracecathedral.org, December 13, 2011.
- Arobateau, Red Jordan, "Red and Anna Deavere Smith", Red Jordan Arobateau Blog, February 23, 2012.
- ^ Franco, Jean "On Grace – Anna Deavere Smith"
- ^ Starr, Michael (June 30, 2008). "Nurse' Edie". New York Post. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
- Indiewire. Archived from the originalon April 6, 2014. Retrieved March 11, 2014.
- ^ Public Broadcasting System television series, Season 2, Episode 3: Finding Your Roots
- ^ Henry Louis Gates Jr. Finding Your Roots, Season 2: The Official Companion to the PBS Series. University of North Carolina Press.
- ^ a b "Speaker biography"[permanent dead link], Royce Carlton Incorporated, accessed August 29, 2011.
- ^ Rabinowitz, Paula (April 16, 2005). "Introduction to Anna Deavere Smith, "Snapshots: Glimpses of America in Change"". University of Minnesota. Archived from the original on June 24, 2010. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
- ^ Tisch School of the Arts. New York University. Retrieved February 21, 2014.
- ^ a b c Landis, Alysha (September 5, 2011). "Actor, playwright and professor Anna Deavere Smith to present keynote address Sept. 13". Goshen College. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
- ^ "Barbara Block, Anna Deavere Smith win MacArthur grants". Stanford University. June 17, 1996. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
- ^ Hetrick, Adam (December 31, 2007). "Anna Deavere Smith Among 2008 Matrix Award Recipients". Playbill. Archived from the original on January 3, 2014. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
- ^ "Yale awards 12 honorary degrees at 2014 graduation". Yale University. May 19, 2014. Retrieved August 22, 2014.
- ^ Tran, Diep (November 22, 2010). "United Solo Festival Winners Announced". Backstage. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
- ^ Boehm, Mike (January 18, 2013). "Anna Deavere Smith wins $300,000 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
- The White House. July 3, 2013. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
- ^ Schuessler, Jennifer (February 19, 2015). "Anna Deavere Smith to Deliver Jefferson Lecture". The New York Times. Retrieved February 28, 2015.
- ^ "Anna Deavere Smith". National Endowment for the Humanities.
- ^ "New 2019 Academy Members Announced". April 17, 2019. She was awarded the League of Professional Theatre Women's Rachel Crothers Leadership Award in 2023.
- ^ N'Duka, Amanda (October 7, 2019). "Penn Badgley, Tony Winner Laura Benanti Join Billy Crystal & Tiffany Haddish In 'Here Today'". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved October 4, 2019.
- ^ "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit". The Futon Critic. Retrieved March 3, 2016.
- ^ Norder, Virginia (March 16, 2015). "Deavere Smith opens IMPACT with one-woman play". The Vanderbilt Hustler. Archived from the original on March 24, 2015. Retrieved March 18, 2015.
- ^ Byrd, Craig (April 15, 2015). "Curtain Call: Anna Deavere Smith Examines Race Relations in Her New Play". Los Angeles. Retrieved April 16, 2015.
- ^ Fancher, Lou (July 8, 2015). "Chatting with Anna Deavere Smith". SF Weekly. Retrieved July 10, 2015.
- Boston Globe. Retrieved September 6, 2016.
External links
- Anna Deavere Smith at IMDb
- Anna Deavere Smith at the Internet Broadway Database
- Anna Deavere Smith PBS Now, 2006
- Anna Deavere Smith at TED
- Speech by Anna Deavere Smith at Bates College Commencement 2007 on YouTube
- Smith Weaves Multiple Stories of Healthcare Struggles into New Solo Performance – video report by Democracy Now!