Theater News

Anna Deavere Smith to Debut New Work in Austin

Anna Deavere Smith
(Photo © Joseph Marzullo)
Anna Deavere Smith
(Photo © Joseph Marzullo)

Award-winning playwright/performer Anna Deavere Smith will debut her newest work Untitled: A New Work in Progress at the Zachary Scott Theatre Center in Austin, Texas, May 18-21.

The piece will focus on the theme of health and the body, and the things that affect our well-being from love and satisfaction to disease and war. Smith began the project when she was teaching at the Yale University School of Medicine. As is true of all of Smith’s work, it has been created by interviewing individuals and weaving their verbatim comments into a mosaic of portraits.

Smith received two Tony Award nominations for Best Play and Best Actress in a Play for Twilight: Los Angeles. Her other plays include Fires in the Mirror: Crown Heights, Brooklyn, and Other Identities and House Arrest: A Search for American Character In and Around The White House. As an actress, her film and television credits include Rent, The Manchurian Candidate, Philadelphia, and The West Wing.