While Anna Deavere Smith may be an award-winning actor best known for her television roles on “The West Wing,” and “Nurse Jackie,” she is also a successful playwright and one of her plays is being performed off-Broadway right now.
"Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992" was written by Deavere Smith after the Los Angeles Riots. The riots were in reaction to the acquittal of police officers in Rodney King’s police brutality case.
Deavere Smith originally performed the play in 1994 as a one-woman show and won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance that year. In this new iteration, the play has now been transformed into an ensemble production.
Five actors perform a variety of roles. The script is based on over 350 interviews and dives into questions of police brutality and social justice, themes that still resonate today.
Time Out New York said it was “powerful, touching and illuminating. Smartly tweaked for an ensemble cast. A very strong cast of five.”
Deavere Smith joined NY1’s Stephanie Simon on Wednesday to discuss the ensemble piece. She said the diverse cast, “makes the race relations story clearer.”
The play is running at the Signature Theatre on West 42nd Street. It has been extended through Nov. 21, 2001. For tickets, go to signaturetheatre.org.