It’s not too often that we see one African-American woman leading a show on Broadway or Off-Broadway and this fall, we have two. Awesome. Need to see both of them.
Anna Deveare Smith who has lately been known as a TV and film actress (Rachel Getting Married, Nurse Jackie, The West Wing) returns to theatre for another one of her tour de force shows that are unique to her. No one else comes close to being able to do what she does. She was spent 8 years researching health care and just as the debate has reached its crescendo she is bringing her show, Let Me Down Easy into NYC. Good timing.
Here are some interesting quotes about Smith from the recent NY Times profile:
But if Smith is unusually demanding, it’s for reasons that go beyond the usual psychology of a creative diva or the exceptional pressure of being both playwright and sole performer. Her drive started even before she knew she would be a performer. It’s bound up with the heavy burden that she says comes with being an educated black woman raised in the ’50s, on the cusp of the civil rights movement. “Because of the generation in which I came into the world,” Smith said one day after rehearsal, “there were expectations. Of course there were expectations. It was something having to do with being a respectable Negro woman who would make the people in Baltimore proud. It didn’t mean going off into the world — maybe you were doing it in Baltimore, probably preferably. But the journey that African-Americans were on at the time w
as to progress.”
“It matters a lot that I get every ‘I mean,’ ” she answered. “That’s the crux of my project. What my work is, is my approach to it. It’s the practice. And my work is about the effort that I make to get there. And I think if there’s anything artistic, it’s in that middle space.”
The show is playing at Second Stage Theatre through November 8.
Charlayne Woodard takes on parenting and motherhood in her new one woman show The Night Watcher.
From the press materials:
Simultaneously a best friend, advisor, confidant and sage to the many young people who call her “Auntie,” Charlayne Woodard is childless only by biological standards. Told with penetrating grace and candor, Woodard beautifully weaves together stories of the ordinary and extraordinary ways she’s mentored the children in her life.
The show is now playing at Primary Stages through October 31st.
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Oh at times like these I really wish I lived in New York. I’d love to see Anna Deveare Smith. She was golden in The West Wing.
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This message is for Charlayne Woodard, I have been looking for the movie Cindy, can you tell me where i can find it.
Thanks
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I would love to see this show is it coming to Atlanta,GA
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