Anna-Deavere Smith News

Second Stage Theater has announced that Bennett Leak, Second Stage Theater's Director of Artistic Production, has been named Interim Artistic Director for the 2024-25 Season.

Join TimeLine Theatre to experience its critically acclaimed Chicago premiere of Anna Deavere Smith’s Notes from the Field on a night dedicated to and celebrating Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) artists and audience members.

Samora Pinderhughes unveils a new song, “Keith LaMar: Sweet,” alongside a film by the same name. The new track is built around a phone call with poet, teacher, musician, writer and painter Keith LaMar, who has spent over 30 years in solitary confinement on Death Row in Ohio after being framed for murder following the 1993 Lucasville Prison Riot.

With NOTES FROM THE FIELD, playwright Anna Deavere Smith once again proves she’s a master of her genre of theatrical storytelling. Known for her documentary (or verbatim) plays, Smith presents monologues from 19 different interviews in this exploration of the school-to-prison pipeline in America. By allowing her interview subjects to literally speak for themselves, Smith has mastered the art of showing and not telling. NOTES FROM THE FIELD has a clear agenda; it’s a searing condemnation of the systemic failings of the American judicial, police, educational, and penitentiary institutions — and most notably a condemnation of the ways in which those systems have failed Black and Brown Americans. But Smith conveys her points with a blistering humanity (even if, at two hours and 40 minutes, I think she could have arrived at those points with a shorter run-time).

Multidisciplinary performance artist Benjie Lasseau, daughter of Benny Goodman, premieres her solo show 'Not Gone Yet: On Stage With My People.'

Join Chilina Kennedy, Matthew Mucha, and more in the hilarious and entertaining Between Broadway Variety Hour.

Second Stage Theater will present the world premiere production of a new play by Alexis Scheer, BREAKING THE STORY.

Signature Theatre presents Signature Premiere Resident, Tony Award nominee, and MacArthur Fellow Dominique Morisseau's Sunset Baby, directed by Steve H. Broadnax III.

The San Jose Stage Company has revealed the complete cast and creative team for the West Coast Premiere of People Where They Are by Anthony Clarvoe. Learn how to purchase tickets!

Burning Coal Theatre Company presents HYMN by Lolita Chakrabarti. Learn how to purchase tickets!

A Sign of the Times, a new musical featuring the songs of Petula Clark, Lesley Gore, Dusty Springfield, and other classic pop hits of the 1960s, will play a commercial engagement beginning March 4, 2024

Mildred Marie Langford, Adhana Reid and Shariba Rivers will give voice to 18 real-life people caught in America’s school-to-prison pipeline in TimeLine Theatre’s Chicago premiere of Notes from the Field by Anna Deavere Smith.

Berkeley Rep to present Emmy Award winner W. Kamau Bell in an upcoming event. Get all the details here.

Young Performers Theatre will present Not Gone Yet: On Stage With My People, the new solo show written and performed by multidisciplinary performance artist Benjie Lasseau.

Chilina Kennedy, Ryan Silverman, Justin Matthew Sargent and Crystal Lucas-Perry will star in A Sign of the Times featuring the songs of Petula Clark, Lesley Gore, Dusty Springfield and more. Off-Broadway.

Nimene Wureh will join the cast of Kate Douglas’ THE APIARY, directed by Kate Whoriskey at Second Stage Theater.

Signature Theatre announces the cast and creative team for the world premiere production of Dave Malloy's Three Houses, directed and choreographed by Annie Tippe. The musical will feature J.D. Mollison, Mia Pak, Margo Seibert, Henry Stram, Scott Stangland, and Ching Valdes-Aran. Performances begin on April 30, 2024.

Second Stage Theater will present a one-night-only reading of the new musical EIGHTY-SIXED, which will kick off the NEXT STAGE FESTIVAL on January 16, 2024 at Second Stage’s Tony Kiser Theater.

South Coast Repertory announces their 2024 production of 'The Old Man and The Old Moon' in partnership with Mission San Juan Capistrano.

Second Stage Theater’s production of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ APPROPRIATE, directed by Lila Neugebauer, has extended three weeks. Learn how to purchase tickets!