By Veronica Y. Gonzalez
On February 18, 2020 I had the pleasure of seeing Anna Deavere Smith perform at The Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. This performance was unique because it wasn't quite standup comedy but it wasn't quite a play either. It was a mix of both. She incorporated telling her story and doing impressions of people she interviewed into her performance. I could tell when she was doing a new person because she would try and imitate their voice and their mannerisms. I liked how she didn't use different costumes or different settings because it made us focus on her talents. We were able to use our imagination to try to envision the people she interviewed. There was one person onstage but we heard the stories and voices of many people.
She was able to represent aspects of the American past through these interviews by bringing up the history of the events. She mentioned what year it was and what had happened that made her go over and interview these people. Mentioning the in-home radio helped us picture how a home would look like in those years. She also talked about the Civil Rights Movement to introduce her impersonation of Congressmen Lewis. The word choices that the people being interviewed made gave us insight to the time period as well.
These events relate to the present because police brutality and segregation are still happening today. We still hear about police abusing their power especially when it comes to their interactions with people from minorities. We have had so many deaths resulting from police brutality with many of them not not even being mentioned on the news. Also, as Anna mentioned in her performance, schools and communities are still segregated. Neighborhoods that are predominantly Hispanic and Black have schools that are underfunded, understaffed, and don't have any resources. This performance actually emphasized how we need to learn from the past and make an effort to create change because history does repeat itself.
