ARTicles VOL 7 NO 1 Sep/08 Anna Deavere Smith Season 08/09 Ellen McLaughlin In Search of Grace Diane Paulus ANNA DEAVERE SMITH RETURNS TO THE A.R.T. WITH HER NEW WORK, LET ME DOWN EASY On the Loeb Stage, September 12 – October 11 MANY AMERICANS RECOGNIZE Anna Ms. Smith Goes Deavere Smith for her roles in The West Wing and The American President. In theatre circles, the story is different. Her one-woman shows have earned two OBIE to Washington awards, a MacArthur Fellowship, and Newsweek’s declaration that she is “the THE THEATRICAL JOURNEY OF ANNA DEAVERE SMITH most exciting individual in American the- by Sean Bartley atre.” What is all the buzz about? In her plays, Smith struggles with the central confl icts of a torn nation. Not only does she tackle incendiary events like the race riots of Crown Heights and Los Ange- les, but she does it alone, playing dozens of characters and moving seamlessly from presidents to death row inmates. In any given performance, she portrays more characters than most actors do in a lifetime. After years as an acting professor, Smith burst onto the theatre scene in 1992 with Fires in the Mirror, her chron- icle of the Crown Heights riots. When a Hasidic driver ran over a seven-year-old Guyanese-American boy, violence erupt- ed. Hours later, an angry mob murdered a young Hasidic professor. Clashes between Jews, African Americans, and police of- fi cers continued for days. In the wake of the violence, Smith conducted hundreds of interviews with residents, politicians, and pundits. The purpose was not to cull information, but character: “I needed evidence that you could fi nd a character’s psychological re- ality by ‘inhabiting’ that character’s words . . . I knew that by using another person’s language, it was possible to portray what was invisible about that individual.” Smith’s solo performances explore language as deeply as politics. Her mas- tery of a character’s language, achieved by continuously playing back taped inter- views, gives her an avenue for under- standing any individual. Smith draws this approach from her grandfather’s asser- Anna Deavere Smith in Let Me Down Easy. tion that “if you say a word often enough, Photo: T. Charles Erickson it becomes you.” Through this rigor-

2 AMERICAN REPERTORY THEATRE ARTicles ous study of a person’s words, anyone “Smith’s solo becomes playable. In Fires in the Mirror, Smith moves from the Reverend Al Sharp- performances ton to families of the riot’s victims, from explore language New York’s most powerful rabbis to street youth at war in Crown Heights. as deeply as The portrayals are unfl inching. Smith makes no attempt to clean up her sub- politics. Her jects’ attitudes or speech. “Um” and “uh” mastery of are crucial elements of her dramaturgy. In fact, Smith is more interested in moments a character’s of inarticulate searching than in polished sound bites. Each of her plays fi ts within a language…gives career-spanning framework for linguistic exploration that she has dubbed “On The her an avenue for Road: A Search For American Character.” understanding Her work, she says, “Is not about a point, it is about a route. It is on the road. Char- any individual.” acter lives in the linguistic road as well as Anna Deavere Smith in Fires in the Mirror. Photo: Martha Swope the destination.” Fires in the Mirror succeeds because looted, Mexican-Americans who rioted create our fantasies, and ultimately own of Smith’s refusal to take sides in the alongside their Black neighbors, and history,” she warns, “the promise of de- Crown Heights struggle. Smith gives voice ministers trying to stop the spread of vio- mocracy can become frail.” to dozens of perspectives, never allow- lence. At the play’s conclusion, L.A. native For House Arrest, Smith took on an- ing one viewpoint to dominate. Closing Twilight Bey shares her hope for under- other diverse group of interviews – from the piece with Carmel Cato, father of the standing: “I see darkness as myself. I see Gary Hart and Anita Hill to journalistic dead seven-year-old, the play expresses the light as knowledge and the wisdom of superstars like George Stephanopo- the lingering emotions of the riot’s par- the world and understanding others…I ulos and Ed Bradley. In the fi nal scenes, ticipants: pain and bitterness. can’t forever dwell in darkness.” Smith presents her smoking gun: candid While previewing Fires in the Mirror Twilight became a national sensation. interviews with Presidents H.W. Bush and (which would later play at the A.R.T.), When the play performed at Ford’s Theatre Clinton. For the fi rst time, Clinton speaks Smith hit upon the source for her next in Washington, the audience included openly about his emotional reaction to groundbreaking play. In April 1992, an all- President Clinton and Vice-President Gore. the Whitewater scandal. Bush, munching white jury acquitted the four white police Before Twilight’s tour was up, it would on a chocolate chip cookie, produces a offi cers who had brutally beaten Rodney claim an OBIE, a Drama Desk award, two chilling one-liner: “As long as the econo- King. Violence and looting engulfed Los Tony award nominations, and a nod for my is good, everybody is fat, dumb and Angeles. Despite the fact that thousands the Pulitzer Prize. Smith also teamed up happy, we might not need a President.” of National Guardsmen had been sent with George C. Wolfe for a PBS version. But even an enormous project like to keep the peace, Smith rushed to L.A. Instead of resting on her laurels, House Arrest wasn’t enough to drain to conduct more inteviews. The result- Smith tackled an even more ambitious Smith’s creativity. During the play’s ing piece, Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992, project. House Arrest, four years in the development, she also founded Harvard’s cemented Smith’s status at the center of making, chronicled the role of the media Institute on the Arts and Civic Dialogue. political theatre. in American life. President Clinton’s rela- Bringing together international multi- Smith refused to see the L.A. riots tionship with the press set the backdrop disciplinary artists, Smith envisioned not in terms of black and white. Twilight for a sprawling play, reaching back to the a think tank, but a “think and do tank.” presents audiences with voices forgot- days of Abraham Lincoln. Smith’s fear For three summers the group convened ten in the media blitz: innocent Korean- of the modern press’ power is urgent. in Cambridge, presenting their art and American store owners whose shops were “If those who have power own the news, engaging in dialogue on current events.

617.547.8300 www.amrep.org 3 During her career in academia, Smith In her most recent book, Smith passes Her timely plays and books have also has also become an important author. In the torch onto a new generation. Letters evolved, constantly exploring language, her book Talk to Me: Listening Between to a Young Artist is a candid portrayal of character, and theatrical form in new the Lines, Smith describes her years in the struggle to make art that grapples with ways. This fall, Smith drives “On The Washington creating House Arrest. Talk to challenging issues in an era of escapist en- Road” in a new direction with Let Me Me is equal parts memoir, media criticism, tertainment. Designed as a series of letters Down Easy. What can we learn from her and manifesto. Using the words of legend- to the imaginary youngster “BZ,” Letters latest adventure? What is her take on the ary broadcaster Studs Terkel, Smith proves to a Young Artist is a call to arms. Smith American Character of 2008? What new the “difference between communications shares her own tough artistic decisions, road will Smith take us down with Let Me and communication.” Smith juxtaposes begging a new generation to follow her Down Easy? her own writing with the transcripts of ambitious example: “I’m not just address- her interviews, showcasing her theories ing you; I am calling you out – asking you Sean Bartley is a second-year dramaturgy on language in action and strategies for to make yourself visible. We need you!” student at the ART/MXAT Institute for getting an interviewee to open up into Much has changed in the two de- Advanced Theatre Training. uncensored speech. cades of Smith’s “On The Road” project.

A Search for Grace ANNA DEAVERE SMITH TALKS TO GIDEON LESTER ABOUT THE ORIGINS OF LET ME DOWN EASY

Anna Deavere Smith is one of the country’s greatest writers and performers, with a unique theatrical style. Each of her productions is an investigation into questions of political and personal identity – the L.A. race riots in Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992, the violent encounters between African-Americans and Lubavitch Jews in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, in Fires in the Mirror. For each production she conducts hundreds of interviews, and then performs as the interviewees on stage, taking meticulous care to reproduce their vocal intonation and physicality. The result is a diverse and non-partisan approach to impossibly complex situations – a truly democratic interweaving of politics and theatre. In her latest one-woman show, Let Me Down Easy, Anna takes a journey in search of human qualities that are too seldom in the news – compassion, generosity, and grace. Channeling a dramatic range of interview subjects, from sports stars and philosophers to healthcare professionals and survivors of the Rwandan genocide, Anna Deavere Smith asks a question for our age: how do we pursue grace and kindness in a competitive and sometimes distressing world?

Let Me Down Easy runs from September 12 – October 11 on the Loeb Stage.

4 AMERICAN REPERTORY THEATRE ARTicles Gideon Lester: You’ve been developing Let for a person like me whose whole work Me Down Easy for more than a decade. is about listening. But now I understand Where did the journey begin? that I was afraid of exposing myself to so Anna Deavere Smith: In 1998 I got a letter many stories about illness. People’s words from Dr. Ralph Horwitz, who was then are saturated with their experience, and Chair of Internal Medicine at Yale Univer- if they’re sick their language is saturated sity Medical School, now Chair of Medi- with their illness. After a weekend of inter- cine at Stanford. He asked me to come to views I’d feel physically ill. Yale and interview doctors and patients, and to perform the interviews at the GL: While you’re performing, do you Medical School’s lecture series, known as continue to feel a strong sense of empathy Reverend Peter Gomes Photo: Kris Snibbe “grand rounds.” I dodged him for almost with the people you portray? two years, and then fi nally I went to Yale ADS: I have to be simultaneously distant in 2000. Every weekend while I was at and present. Much of what I’m doing on The U.S. looked like Africa in crisis. I went Harvard as director of the Institute on the stage is technical; I’m like a singer trying to do interviews in New Orleans when Arts & Civic Dialogue I’d drive to New Ha- to hit the right note. But the process of I returned. The journey continued with ven and spend Saturday in Ralph’s offi ce, compiling one of these plays is long and an intensive series of interviews at M.D. listening to stories from patients and doc- complicated, and I can have an emotional Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. I tors. That fall I performed at grand rounds. response at many stages – during an in- then had an invaluable experience at the The speaker there is usually a scientist, terview, or when I’m transcribing the text, Zachary Scott Theatre in Austin, where I and it took place in a medical amphithe- or listening to the words over and over, or presented the newly acquired material in a atre with a blackboard behind me and a learning the lines, dwelling in the lines, see- series of staged readings, hot off the press. lab table in front of me, and all these doc- ing what they mean. By last summer, when I worked on Let Me tors in there at 8am in their starched shirts Down Easy at the Long Wharf Theatre in and ties, annoyed that they were told to GL: How did the project continue to de- New Haven, I had an encyclopedia of inter- turn their beepers off. Much to my shock velop after Yale? views – doctors, patients, physicists, musi- it was very well received. People were very ADS: At that time I thought the play would cians, athletes, journalists, and on and on. moved, and it really found a way into my be primarily about mortality and the hu- I explored the material for two weeks with heart too. The patients I’d interviewed had man body. In 2002 I met Samantha Power the Long Wharf’s Artistic Director, Gordon come to see it, and it was powerful that (the foreign policy expert), who was writing Edelstein, and it was there I learned that the they were there. They had an invaluable about Rwanda. She told me that if I was piece would be about life as much as death, look on their faces that had nothing to working on the body then I had to go there about a search for grace. As Angie Farmer, do with how well I’d done; it was because and talk to survivors of the genocide. So the mother of a cancer patient in Houston, they were hearing their stories in another I went in 2005, and Samantha helped me said to me, “Living – that’s what you learn medium. Nothing gives me a greater sense to get set up. Rwanda was already in my from this experience. You don’t learn how of fulfi llment than that. heart because of an extraordinary Rwandan to die, you learn how to live.” With that in playwright, Hope Azeda, who had been at mind I’m now conducting more interviews, GL: Why did you dodge the invitation for the Institute on Arts and Civic Dialogue. and we’ll continue to develop the play in two years? While still in Africa, my staff and I were rehearsals at the A.R.T. ADS: I thought at fi rst it was because I shocked by images of Hurricane Katrina. didn’t want to make a fool of myself in front of smart people. Many of us are dis- appointed with the healthcare system and “Grace is in how we treat each other with the experiences we sometimes have with doctors; however, they are incred- when we could choose to exert ibly educated people with a very unusual attention to detail, which is intoxicating power and we fi nd another way.”

617.547.8300 www.amrep.org 5 GL: Does religion play an important part in incredible amount of grace. Grace is in how have to be present and patient for them your life? we treat each other when we could choose when they come forward. It’s wonderful ADS: I had an extremely religious upbring- to exert power and we fi nd another way. when that happens in the theatre, and the ing, and a very conservative Methodist Grace is related to kindness. It can be politi- presence of the audience is critical. Together background. Couldn’t dance on Sunday, cal, or social, or aesthetic. Let Me Down we can discover some new mystery about couldn’t go to the movies on Sunday, that Easy is a great treasure hunt; I’m searching how we are as humans, in that hour and a kind of thing. I am an Episcopalian, and at for examples of grace that I can share with half we spend together, trying to peel away the moment I’m working through what my the audience. the layers of the onion. That’s what I hope religiosity and spirituality are. happens for them, and for me. GL: The play is also very much about heal- GL: Does “grace” have a religious meaning ing. One of the doctors you interviewed Gideon Lester is the A.R.T.’s Acting Artistic for you? talks about the growth of the relationship Director for the 08/09 Season. ADS: Reverend Peter Gomes, the Minister between physician and patient as a journey at Harvard’s Memorial Church, describes that two people are taking, not just one grace as the moment when you are about to person. do something one way, and you realize God ADS: Yes, I love that. That’s Asghar Raste- would want you to do it another way, and gar, at Yale. He goes on to say that some of you actually go God’s way and make anoth- the most maturing events in his life have What Does er choice. In his mind, grace is doing what been going through a critical illness with a God would have you do. He also points patient and seeing that person get over self- Grace Mean out that we don’t always go God’s way. To pity, accept, and move on. He talks about my mind, Gomes’s idea of grace requires how it causes him to realize that he could To You? discipline, or a change in your inherent na- be that other person on the other side of ture and a subsequent taking of the higher the table. This also has a relationship with ground. When I interviewed him we talked the theatre, because when a performance is about the song “Amazing Grace,” which was working, someone in the audience has that written about a slaveholder who freed his kind of relationship with the least expected As the newsletter staff began to slaves. The slave owner had a conversion. character, the least expected idea. discuss how the word “grace” factors A notion of grace actually fi rst came to me into Anna’s interview, we realized how from listening over and over to the Adagio GL: What do you hope the audience’s expe- individual concepts of grace are very dif- from Schubert’s “Quintet in C,” the Christ- rience will be? ferent, and very personal. One member mas after my mother died. I’m haunted by ADS: I can’t presume to say. I hope a con- of our group actually found himself un- the word “grace,” because of something that nection happens, and I don’t really think comfortable with the word; others found happened to me during my confi rmation about the “takeaway,” as they say in corpo- it powerful. Some saw it spiritually, while at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. The rate America. I think less about what people others associated it only with the body. bishop had forgotten his glasses. He was an take away than what they bring. Every How do you think about grace? Do you old man, I’d have thought he’d have known member of the audience brings something think of yourself as someone who expe- riences grace in your life? Why? How? If the word by heart, but he started stumbling. into the theatre: a relationship to their body, you work in the world of health care and He repeated, “God grant her…God grant to illness, mortality, vulnerability, resistance. healing, how do you see grace fi tting in? her…” and he leaned over to the priest and It’s exciting that they bring so much into We’d like to explore these issues on asked, “What is this word?” And the priest that room, where we are trying to uncover our online hubbub, at blog.amrep.org. said, “Grace.” That never left me, and the the mysteries of the human condition. I Stop by, and participate! Or, feel free word became charged in my mythology. remember my friend Evelynn Hammonds, to write to us, and we will include your But I think of grace less as a religious con- now Dean of Harvard College, talking to me comments online. Selected comments cept than as a force in nature. Grace lies in a about science when she was a professor may well show up in future issues of dancer trying to make a diffi cult movement at MIT. She described science as “Mother ARTicles. look effortless and beautiful. My dog has an Nature revealing her mysteries to you” – you Anna Deavere Smith in an IACD session. Photo: Tony Rinaldo

6 AMERICAN REPERTORY THEATRE ARTicles And the Women Are Tutsi IN PREPARATION FOR LET ME DOWN EASY, ANNA DEAVERE SMITH TRAVELED TO RWANDA TO INTERVIEW GENOCIDE SURVIVORS

HOPE AZEDA IS a beautiful woman. phone, a voice full of melody made its way Though we thought she was extraordinary through a thick wall of static: “Ahna I have looking, she would probably consider her- been so hangry and thursty to talk to you!” self a typical Tutsi – as she would describe When the time came, I sent my assistant herself, “Toll and skee-ney.” And then that to the airport to greet her. Her plane was wonderful laugh, an uninhibited giggle delayed for several hours. Finally, I got a left over from childhood. Though Hope’s call. “She’s here. And she’s gorgeous,” my country had been through hell, she had assistant said. more optimism, a healthier access to the Four years passed. Elizabeth Neuffer creativity and energy of childhood than was killed in Iraq. Her driver was speed- Hope Azeda those of us who had lived in comfort and ing. She and her translator were killed. The relative stability. driver lived. I tried to imagine what it was It was the late Elizabeth Neuffer, a like. I thought they’d fallen off a cliff. Sitting Rwanda, and I had forgotten about that. A war correspondent for The Boston Globe, in a shining clean white wooden church year before Elizabeth died I met Saman- who told me about Hope, a Rwandan in a bucolic town in Connecticut for tha Power, the author of the Pulitzer Prize playwright she had met in her travels, Elizabeth’s memorial, surrounded by her winning book about genocide, A Problem travels that inevitably took her to sites colleagues, journalists, dressed in black, from Hell. She “learned the ropes” from where death prevailed. Elizabeth was listening to those church bells toll, once Elizabeth. I told Samantha my new play fascinated not with the rough face of war, for each year of her life, I couldn’t imagine was going to be about the body and health or dodging bullets, but with how families what it was like. For the longest time, I care and about beauty and about death. managed to put themselves and their lives had imagined a heartless driver who went “If you are going to write about the back together afterwards. Hope had lived about his life after the accident without body, you have to go to Rwanda!” she said most of her life as a refugee in Uganda and guilt or accountability. Now I know that’s as she put out coffee and fruit salad on had returned to Rwanda after the geno- not what happened. It was near a popu- the porch of her seaside fl at not far from cide. There, she had produced a play that lated area. Her boyfriend, Peter Canellos, Boston. She pulled out a book of photo- was meant to heal her country after the had gone to Dover to identify the body. graphs of the Gachacha trials with Hutu genocide. Elizabeth thought Hope would “She was not decapitated,” he said, quietly, murderers dressed in pink. The Gachacha be perfect for a project I had just started at when we talked about it and I got the is a traditional community court that Harvard, the Institute on the Arts and Civic whole story. I am learning how important it has been reinstated in order to deal with Dialogue, whose mission is to explore the is to get the facts, especially when imagina- the hundreds of thousands of Hutus in intersection of the arts and political reality. tion fails you. Apparently, the driver got out prison for the atrocities they had commit- It was not easy to get Hope to Cam- of the car and over or near Elizabeth’s dead ted against Tutsis during the genocide. bridge. When we fi nally had a way of get- body, he screamed, “I promised to protect The modern justice system could not ting her there, the phone lines were so bad, her! I promised to protect her!” And he had possibly handle the numbers. Whereas the it took forever to actually speak to her. All made such a promise to Peter. South Africans speak of truth and recon- hours of day and night I tried. All I ever got Elizabeth’s legacy in my life continues. ciliation, the Rwandan national mantra was a busy signal. When I got her on the She had always thought I should go to is “forgiveness.”

617.547.8300 www.amrep.org 7 “The most moving portion of the Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre is a large room fi lled with pictures hanging from wires along the walls. Each photograph is the face of someone killed in the genocide. The photographs, posted by surviving friends and family, show men, women, and children in happier days – at weddings, birthday parties, graduations. All of them are now lost, killed in the genocide, and only their memory and these photos remain.”

—Timothy Longman

Photo: Timothy Longman

“Why are they dressed in pink?” I and mini DV tapes. They were all sealed, corpses dug up from mass graves. As our asked. and I had over a thousand of them. Hope van climbed the hill, we saw perhaps street Over the phone before I left, Saman- managed to change the course of things. I clothes, these “killers.” tha said, in her matter-of-fact way, “Thirty had not yet seen such authority emanating I talked to one man and one woman. thousand killers are about to be released from her, but then, I’d never seen her speak I have no frame of reference for them. I from prison. You have to talk to some.” Go her native tongue. Was this what would be can’t make a metaphor. It would be false, it to Rwanda and talk to killers? Just like that? called “haughty” by those who stereotype would be full of me and you and our idea These human rights people amaze me. Tutsi women as such? The customs offi cer of normal, our idea of atrocity. Hope Azeda met me with open arms let us pass on. “Did you learn anything in prison?” I at the airport in Kigali. The last time I’d We headed the next day to a Gacha- said, studying the Hutu prisoner’s face and seen her had been fi ve years before, on cha trial. People were assembled on speaking to Gabriel, the Tutsi translator. He the day she’d left Harvard. She’d been benches under an open wooden structure. repeated the question in Kinyarwanda. The crying nonstop all day, then headed off to I sat across from two killers, one whom prisoner looked at the translator and then fl y home with bags full of running shoes the community “forgave” and released. at me. He didn’t seem to want to speak to and bed sheets – someone had taken her The other, they determined, was lying. me, nor did he seem not to want to speak to a discount house. How could someone They sent him back to prison. Rich, dark to me. The Hutus it seems are followers. whose country was in a state of trauma brown skin, beautiful features. “Broad,” “Go out and kill the cockroaches,” and have tears left for the likes of us, people yes, but sculpted, bone meeting skin. they did it. “Speak to this lady with the tape who freely use the word atrocious to mean Pink pants that didn’t quite reach the recorder,” and he did it. I noticed his neon a bad movie. ankles, just as pink as in the photos that multicolored fl ip-fl ops. He answered, now, It’s a small airport, the same one Samantha had showed me. Tennis shoes. studying my face: “Only some Swahili, and where Clinton met with Kagame – the trip With the immediate defeat of the trial on that, not very well.” he took where he went no further than the his face, the one who was headed back On the last day, I interviewed the airport. Diane Walker, the photographer to prison declared his innocence into my translator. He had been telling me what who was traveling with me to Rwanda, had tape recorder (still referring to the Tutsis people had said – it was through his lens, been on that trip with Clinton, whom she as cockroaches). Members of the commu- his voice, that I was hearing. How to move photographed for Time throughout his nity stood around, saturating themselves from beside his lens to behind it? How to presidency. “I could tell he was upset,” she with his every word, sucking their teeth, translate his voice? said, as we waited for our bags. It was like gasping, and then pushed themselves into Gabriel was downright handsome and a 1950s American bus depot, say in a small my mike – pronouncing the man a liar, a he had a perfect smile and eyes like you’d town in the south. “When he gets upset, he murderer. I loved the Rwandans because known him all your life. On an American clenches his jaw.” they are expressive. television show he would play the boy next The customs offi cer insisted on One rainy Saturday, we went to a door, even in a show with an otherwise all inspecting each of my audio tapes, DATS, genocide memorial that we were told had white cast. His pants fi t him perfectly – like

8 AMERICAN REPERTORY THEATRE ARTicles he’d had an Italian tailor, and the same the senior ranking politicians who made most people had only thought to be a with his shirt; a tight European cut that all of this, they did not hand over their special sort of possession, in fact, if I may showed his long lean torso. own wives. They still have their Tutsi call it that. Listen to this: wives. There is documented evidence, They say there was this phrase in GABRIEL: Yes, there was always a cassettes and all of that, of politicians Rwanda: “Watches are Swiss, cars are belief in Rwanda that Tutsi women were calling for Hutu men to have their chance German, and women are Tutsi.” much more prettier than their Hutu coun- to see what a Tutsi woman is like, and terparts, and this was also from history this, of course, encouraged the rape, Reprinted from A Public Space by from colonialists. When Belgians came in, mass rape everywhere. It was a chance permission of Anna Deavere Smith and they say that Tutsis were not Bantu. They for every militia to take on, to have what the Watkins/Loomis Agency. say Tutsis were originally from the north of Africa, nomads, and that whole sort of thing. But, anyway, not only that, that was one of the stereotypes, but when it came to it, it extended, and people always say that Joshua Redman Tutsi women were the prettiest, and, gener- One of the new components of the production of ally, in Rwanda at the time, if you look at… Let Me Down Easy at the A.R.T. are the musical while there are some… while Hutu politi- elements created by renowned saxophonist and cians were calling on people to sideline composer Joshua Redman. Redman, a Harvard alumnus who graduated Tutsis, to kill Tutsis, and that sort of thing, Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa in you would be surprised to notice that most 1991, was accepted to Yale Law School, but of them, actually, had Tutsi wives, even requested and was granted a year deferment. those who are in detention in Arusha on He never accepted his spot at Yale – he moved trial. A big number of very senior govern- to New York City and chose to pursue a life in ment offi cials, the most radical at the time music. After winning fi rst place in the Thelonious of the genocide, had Tutsi wives. Monk International Jazz Competition that year, ADS: Did they kill them during the Redman began touring and recording extensively. genocide? Those wives? Since 1994 he has released eleven recordings, GABRIEL: The big politicians did not garnering several Grammy nominations. Redman kill them, but they advised most other peo- has performed and recorded with household names such as Dave Brubeck, The Dave Joshua Redman receiving the ple to kill their wives, to kill anything Tutsi. Harvard Arts Medal from President Matthews Band, B.B. King, Yo Yo Ma, The Rolling So there were other… there were many Drew Faust. Photo: Kris Snibbe Stones, and Stevie Wonder. other cases whereby people gave away their own wives. Quite often, they did not kill them on their own, but they advised most other people to kill their wives, to kill anything Tutsi. Quite often, they did not kill them on their own, but they handed Grace in the Dark them over to militias or in cases where they A SERIES OF DIALOGUES WITH ANNA DEAVERE SMITH AND HOMI BHABHA did not have their wives anymore, they Join us in September for a series of post-performance discussions led by Homi handed over their kids because they told Bhabha, Anne F. Rothenberg Professor of the Humanities and Director of the Humani- them there was nothing with Tutsi blood ties Center at Harvard. He will be joined by Anna Deavere Smith along with other that was to survive. guests, and will discuss topics including her new work, past works, and medical ethics. I’ve seen cases of grandmothers who Discussions will follow the performances on September 16, 23, and 30. handed over their grandchildren because For more information, visit the show website at www.amrep.org/letmedown. there was Tutsi blood somewhere in their lineage. But it never… when it came to

617.547.8300 www.amrep.org 9 On Stage

Experience A.R.T. in 08/09! From Anna Deavere Smith’s exploration of grace and healing to Aurélia Thierrée’s fantastical show of magic and illusion; from gorgeous productions of classics by Beckett and Chekhov to world premieres by two of the most exciting young women writers in the country; from Dracula’s castle in Transylvania to David Mamet’s wickedly funny reinvention of a courtroom farce – these productions will fi re your imagination and change your view of yourself, your community, and your world. Please join us.

Flexible Season Tickets on Sale As a season ticket holder, you’ll get: » The best seats, guaranteed! 3-play tickets start at just $32* per play! » 10% off additional A.R.T. tickets Introducing choose-your-own and fl e x . The A.R.T. wants to make your » Free Zipcar membership life easier, so we’ve designed a season ticket that works three ways: » 10% off books† at the Harvard Coop » Free tickets to all A.R.T. Institute plays assigned choose- fl ex: decide » Free and easy ticket exchange 123series your-own the details later! » Free drink coupons for the A.R.T. Bar schedule » Choose your day » Choose your dates from the » Choose peak (Fri/Sat eves) » Discounts on parking of the week. season calendar within peak or off-peak (weekdays, » Tickets will be mailed to you. (Fri/Sat eves) or off-peak matinees) when you order. » Discounts on fi ne dining (weekdays, matinees). » When ready, choose a date » Tickets will be mailed to you. for each production. Simply » Discounts at local theatres call or submit our online † textbooks excluded form. seating » Priority seating: seats » Receive priority seating » Special priority seats will be assigned before choose- before single tickets go on held until one week prior to Season Ticket Prices (3 or more plays) your-own. sale – the best available in each performance. Day of Seating Loeb Zero Arrow » Your seats are yours. Same the section you select. Week Section Plays Plays seats at every performance. Off-peak: A $64 » May renew for future Matinees & $37 seasons. Weeknights B $32 date changes » Available free of charge‡ at » Available free of charge‡ » Available free of charge‡ Peak: A $78 $50 & ticket any time. at any time. at any time. Fri/Sat Eves B $54 exchange Children Any $12 $12 missed » Attend any performance » Attend any performance » Attend any performance performances of the same show on a of the same show on a of the same show on a stand-by basis. stand-by basis. stand-by basis. * Off-peak, section B ‡ Off peak, to peak exchanges will be charged the difference in ticket value

10 AMERICAN REPERTORY THEATRE ARTicles Let Me Down Easy Aurélia’s Oratorio Trojan Barbie by Anna Deavere Smith written and directed by Christine Evans September 12 – October 11 by Victoria Thierrée Chaplin directed by Carmel O’Reilly “You are always aware of her commanding starring Aurélia Thierrée March 28 – April 19 stage presence – but the personas of her sub- November 28 – December 28 There is no life in another country. You’ll jects come through with a shining clarity, as “An absolute spellbinder…an enchanting dream, always be a foreigner, stuck on the wrong side easily as light moves through glass.” and like most vivid reveries, it momentarily of the looking-glass.” —New York Times colors the way you see the waking world.” —Trojan Barbie A meditation on the resilience, vulnerability, —London Daily Telegraph Lotte Jones, a doll repair expert, vacations and beauty of the human body and spirit. Discover Aurélia’s topsy-turvy world of in Troy, where she fi nds more of a change of Anna Deavere Smith channels a dramatic surreal surprises, tricks, and transformations, scene than she’d bargained for. Part homage range of interview subjects, from supermod- where dreams come to life and the impos- to Euripides’ Trojan Women, Trojan Barbie is els and athletes to doctors and survivors of sible happens before your very eyes…. an epic war story with a most unlikely hero- the Rwandan genocide. Inspired by the magic of music hall and ine, who always looks on the bright side even circus, it’s an ideal holiday treat for the whole as past and present collide about her. The Communist Dracula Pageant family. Suitable for ages 8 – 100! by Anne Washburn Romance directed by Anne Kauffman The Seagull by David Mamet October 18 – November 9 by Anton Chekhov directed by Scott Zigler “Something is dismounting the horse of history, directed by János Szász May 9–31 which has been ridden hard. Something has January 10 – February 1 “A joy…a fi esta of forbidden laughter…a giddy, leapt to the earth and is striding towards us. “We have to show life not the way it is, or the glorious, bad-taste valentine…. The most You can hear the horse’s heaving breath, and way it should be, but the way it is in dreams.” skillfully constructed farce since Michael footsteps on the icy ground.” —Konstantin in The Seagull Frayn’s Noises Off.” —The Communist Dracula Pageant Written in 1896, Chekhov’s tragicomedy of —Newsday A wild and offbeat romp through the web of life and art astonished the old century as it It’s hay fever season, and in a courthouse Romanian myth and history, drawn from the heralded the birth of modern drama. Dreams a judge is popping antihistamines like imagination of one of this country’s most born and shattered, loves won and lost – candy. David Mamet as you’ve never seen lauded young writers. Our own election The Seagull paints a rich and tumultuous him before. A courtroom farce that takes no season provides the perfect backdrop for this portrait of the human heart. prisoners in its quest for total political incor- theatrical satire on the forging of a national rectness. identity and the power of a president to Endgame rewrite the news. by Samuel Beckett directed by Marcus Stern Order Today! February 14 – March 15 “Use your head, can’t you, use your head. Call 617.547.8300 You’re on earth, there’s no cure for that!” or visit amrep.org/2009 —Hamm in Endgame Spare, enigmatic, and absurdly funny, For a complete calendar Endgame is one of the greatest dramas with dates and times, of the modern age. Beckett’s language is pared down to a distilled beauty, and his please see page 14. archetypal characters achieve a poetic grace despite their bizarre condition.

617.547.8300 www.amrep.org 11 The Institute for Advanced Theatre Training

A Taste of the Future Institute World-class international directors collaborating with Fall Productions up-and-coming young actors…FREE to season ticket holders!

FOUNDED IN 1987 as a training ground for in several A.R.T. productions. Institute at Zero Arrow the American theatre, the A.R.T. Institute graduates have gone on to highly success- for Advanced Theatre Training (IATT) ful careers in theatre, television, fi lm, and The Discreet Charm of at Harvard University is one of the most academia. Monsieur Jourdain dynamic graduate theatre programs in the As part of their training, the Institute based on the play by Molière country. Each year, the Institute accepts also produces a full season of plays at directed by Dmitry Troyanovsky the most talented acting, dramaturgy, and Zero Arrow Theatre, staged by leading September 4, 5, 6 at 7:30 p.m. September 6 at 1:30 p.m. voice students from around the U.S. and directors from this country and abroad. Performed by the IATT second-year from abroad to participate in a unique Over half of the Institute’s season is graduate acting students training program that combines classroom dedicated to premieres of new American Back from a sold-out run in Moscow, Dmitry study with direct, professional experience work, and some of the projects – such as Troyanovsky’s groovy reinterpretation of this in the fi eld. Since 1998, the Institute has Marcus Stern’s sold-out stage adaptation French neo-classical comedy moves Molière’s also been in a close partnership with the of the hit fi lm Donnie Darko – are so suc- bourgeois hero from the 17th century to the Moscow Art Theatre School (MXAT) in cessful that they receive further devel- 1960s. Nouveau riche collides with decadent aristocracy, young love, and practical jokes Russia. During their fi rst year of training opment and a professional production in a production full of music, dancing, spec- the Institute students spend a semester in during the A.R.T. season. tacle, and song. Moscow, where they have the opportunity As a season-ticket holder, you are to be part of one of the world’s most active invited to attend all Institute productions Ajax in Iraq theatre cultures and study with Russian for free. by Ellen McLaughlin directed by Scott Zigler master teachers. During their second year Come see the next generation of ac- October 9, 10, 11 at 7:30 p.m. in Cambridge they join the professional tors performing provocative and exciting October 11 at 1:30 p.m. company and are cast in major roles new work at the A.R.T. Institute. How does the experience of war affect the common soldier? What do veterans bring home from war? How are they treated when they return? These are just a few of the ques- tions explored in the world premiere produc- tion of this new play by award-winning writer Ellen McLaughlin. Using Sophocles’ Ajax as a lens through which to view and interpret the current war, McLaughlin’s play combines an- cient Greece and modern-day Iraq to grapple with these diffi cult and perplexing times.

Second year students Josh Stammel, Emily Alpern, Sheila Carrasco, and Renzo Ampuero in The Discreet Charm of Monsieur Jourdain.

12 AMERICAN REPERTORY THEATRE ARTicles Ellen McLaughlin on Ajax in Iraq Ellen McLaughlin, an award-winning playwright and accomplished actress (the original Angel in Tony Kushner’s Angels in America), has for the last year been developing a new play in collabo- ration with the Institute’s second-year graduate acting and dramaturgy students. Her residence at the A.R.T. has been made possible by a grant from Theatre Communications Group (TCG) and the National Endowment for the Arts. Below, McLaughlin shares her thoughts about the process of writing the play and the sources she’s drawing from.

THE IDEA OF writing a piece with the theatrical material based on research and play in the light of our times, his agony A.R.T. Institute about the Iraq War oc- interviews, all related to war. The range suddenly seems terribly modern. His curred to me not because I thought I could of response was wide, the work nuanced voice can be heard in the voices of veter- do it, but because I thought I couldn’t not and smart. We saw pieces about Korean ans speaking now about their experiences do it. We are fi ve years into what may be comfort women, Supermax prison, in Iraq. I came to feel that this disturbing an unending war and I, for one, have yet Kurdish poetry, and the Crusades, to and impossible play might be the means to make sense of it. I knew the only way I name a fraction. The collaborations were of grappling with this disturbing and was ever going to be able to come to grips generous and effective, the presentations impossible war. with it was through the medium I work theatrically astute. I was bowled over. These Greek plays – so ancient as in, the theatre. And I needed all the help I While looking for a means of shaping to belong to no one – provide struc- could get. Specifi cally, I needed the help of this enormously varied wealth of mate- tures durable and capacious enough to theatre artists from the generation of the rial, I began to think about Sophocles’ encompass and shelter the new. They are people doing the fi ghting and dying in the thorny and challenging play Ajax, a the stories people have been telling and war rather than from my own peers, the tragedy about a veteran’s madness and retelling for thousands of years in order generation that is sending them over there. suicide. I’ve adapted many Greek plays to make sense of what they are living I wanted the play we came up with to be over the years and fi nd the ancient Greeks through. The talented and passionate something that spoke for the students at particularly trenchant when it comes to students at the Institute and I are, I fi gure, least as much as it does for me. I’ve had their treatment of war, which all the great in the grand tradition. We are speaking for my say. My generation has been talking tragic playwrights knew intimately as vet- these fraught and perplexing times. And about itself culturally for some time now. It erans. The plays speak of war with candor we need, as I say, all the help we can get. was time to listen. So I asked the students and the wisdom born of the suffering war to tell me what they thought, not only inevitably causes, no matter which side about this war but about war in general. you’re on. Ajax is a fi gure of pathos at the We met for several hours twice a same time that he is adamantly complex week for a few weeks in the fall of 2007 and diffi cult. But his pain, however much and then again in the spring this year, we wish to turn from it, compels our at- and the students generated a great deal of tention and our empathy. Looking at this

617.547.8300 www.amrep.org 13 ARTifacts The Calendar

CURTAIN TIMES Ave. (entrance on Ellery Street). For Sun Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri Sat 7:30 pm Tue, Wed, Thu, permits, visit amrep.org/venues/ SEP. 4 5 6 2008 JRD i JRD i JRD i i Sun evenings zarrow/#harvard. 789101112 HOT 13 HOT 8:00 pm Fri & Sat evenings GRAFTON STREET PUB & GRILL LMD LMD 1230 Mass Ave. (corner of Bow St.) 2:00 pm Sat & Sun matinees 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 6pm–1am, Wed–Sat LMD LMD LMD u LMD o,t LMD t PERFORMANCE STAGES: Free valet parking with a $50 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 LOEB DRAMA CENTER purchase. 617.497.0400 LMD LMD LMD LMD p LMD LMD c,t 64 Brattle Street, Cambridge INN AT HARVARD 28 29 30 OCT. 1 2 3 4 LMD LMD LMD p LMD LMD ZERO ARROW THEATRE 1201 Mass Ave. 5 6789 AJX i 10 AJX i 11AJX i i Corner of Mass. 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Loeb reception desk and receive dis- 617.864.1933 / upstairsonthesquare.com LMD Let Me Down Easy AJX Ajax in Iraq p Preplay discussion counts at the University Place Garage CDP Communist Dracula Pageant JRD The Discreet Charm of t Talkback discussion ZOE’S or the Charles Hotel Garage. AUR Aurélia’s Oratorio Monsieur Jourdain c Childcare series 1105 Mass Ave. END Endgame daytime show (2pm unless o Out at A.R.T. ZERO ARROW THEATRE 10% discount on bill. SEA Seagull otherwise marked) u Under 35 night $5 parking with permit at the 617.495.0055 / zoescambridge.com BAR Trojan Barbie evening show (Fri & Sat 8pm, m 10:30am matinee Harvard University lot at 1033 Mass ROM Romance Sun–Thu 7:30pm unless marked) i Institute plays (1:30pm or 7:30pm) HOT Hot Dates: a limited number of $25 tickets are available, and are located at the rear and sides of the theatre.

14 AMERICAN REPERTORY THEATRE ARTicles News Welcoming Diane Paulus

Here are some of the productions she In early June, Diane began work on the staged this year: Glimmerglass Opera production of Kiss Last April saw the premiere of her Me Kate, while simultaneously starting production of the Olga Neuwirth opera rehearsals in New York for the Public Lost Highway, based on the David Lynch Theater’s 40th anniversary production of fi lm, which opened the season of the Hair at the Delacorte Theatre in Central English National Opera at the Young Park. She commuted between Cooper- Vic in London. The critics lauded her stown and New York City for over a month production: until Kiss Me Kate opened in July to rave reviews, followed by Hair in early August “Director Diane Paulus marshals the to similar accolades. stage and video action in a slick Projects already in the works include production.” La Clemenza Di Tito at Chicago Opera —The Sunday Times Theater; and Death And The Powers, a new opera by MIT composer Tod Macho- “Director Diane Paulus does a stunning ver and librettist Robert Pinsky, with story job. Her designers turn the Young Vic into by Randy Weiner. The project is being a neon-lit installation.” created at the MIT Media Lab, and will —The London Independent receive its world premiere at the Grimaldi Forum in Monte Carlo. Mozart’s Don Giovanni at Chicago Opera We look forward to welcoming Theatre with Jane Glover on the podium Diane, helping her settle here in Cam- followed. Her daring production, designed bridge, and supporting her as she pro- by her frequent collaborator and A.R.T. grams groundbreaking work in the A.R.T.’s regular Riccardo Hernandez, set the opera coming seasons. Look for information in THE A.R.T. COMPANY and staff members in a sleazy, Vegas-style nightclub. The fi rst our next newsletter about opportunities are thrilled about the appointment of video-simulcast in the opera company’s to meet Diane, and join us in welcoming Diane Paulus as our new Artistic Director. history, Don Giovanni was broadcast from her to Cambridge! Diane will take A.R.T.’s artistic helm this fall, the Harris Music and Dance Theater to the to begin the planning of our 09/10 Season. Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park. A glimpse at Diane’s life over the past The Chicago Sun-Times raved: several months provides some hints of the energy, creativity, and dynamism that is “Chicago Opera Theater has scored an- in store for us here in Cambridge. Diane other triumph with its new production has been keeping busy with a number of of Don Giovanni…by the company’s projects both near and far – which hasn’t superb partnership of conductor Jane left much time for house-hunting in Cam- Glover and director Diane Paulus.” bridge with her husband and children! —Chicago Sun-Times, May 2008

617.547.8300 www.amrep.org 15

www.amrep.org 617.547.8300 www.amrep.org

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Performance Stages Performance

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ARTicles Sep/08 Vol 7 No 1 In This Issue

2 Anna Deavere 10 The 08/09 Season Smith 12 The Institute for Advanced Ms. Smith Goes to Theatre Training Washington A Taste of the Future A Search for Grace Collaborating with the And the Women Are Tutsi Playwright Ellen McLaughlin 14 ARTifacts 14 Calendar 15 Welcoming Diane Paulus

Anna Deavere Smith in Let Me Down Easy. Photo: T. Charles Erickson