Anna Deavere Smith - Fires in the Mirror

Ive seen nothing smarter, more engaging and entertaining in recent theater. Anna Deavere Smith is one of the few who are still creating for the theater. Shes a fine example of a contemporary Brechtian in the sense that she never wholly loses herself in the characters. You always see the talented choice-making artist peeping through. Spalding Gray Smith turns the headlines into pure drama. Hollywood Reporter Spellbinding. Hollywood Reporter Spellbinding.

Deeply perceptive. Provocative. Throbs with understandable emotions on all sides. New York Newsday You could describe Ms. Smith as a documentary film maker who has simply decided to dispense with the camera. Fires in the Mirror couldnt be more timely.

Yet the timelessness of the piece is what impressed me. David Richards, New York Times An extraordinary play riveting an unsparing rendering of the myriad emotions of the [Crown Heights] incidentnot just the rage that hit the headlines but also the bitterness, grief and bewilderment that touched the community. Wall Street Journal

First Anchor Books Edition, October 1993 Copyright 1993 by Anna Deavere Smith
Foreword copyright 1993 by Cornel West All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Anchor Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York, and distributed in Canada by Penguin Random House Canada Limited, Toronto. Anchor Books and colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC. Photo credits appear on .

All rights, including but not limited to live stage performing rights (professional and amateur), motion picture, radio and television broadcasting, recording, recitation, lecturing, public reading, and the rights of translation into foreign languages, are expressly reserved to the author and subject to a royalty. Particular emphasis is placed on the question of readings and all uses of this play by educational institutions, permission for which must be secured from the authors representatives. For live stage amateur and stock performances contact: Dramatists Play Service, 440 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10016. For all other rights contact: Suzanne Gluck, International Creative Management, Inc., 40 West 57 Street, New York, NY 10019, (212) 556-5755. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fires in the mirror : Crown Heights, Brooklyn, and other identities /
Anna Deavere Smith; with a foreword by Cornel West.1st Anchor
Books ed.
p. cm.
1.

Crown Heights (New York, N.Y.)HistoryDrama. 2. ViolenceNew York (N.Y.)History20th centuryDrama. 3. New York (N.Y.)Race relationsDrama. 4.

Afro-AmericansNew York (N.Y.)Drama. 5. JewsNew York (N.Y.)Drama. I. Title.
PS3569.M465F56 1993
812.54dc20 93-10121 Anchor Books Trade Paperback ISBN9780385470148
Ebook ISBN9781101911297 www.anchorbooks.com v3.1_r2 This book is dedicated to the residents of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, and to the memory of Gavin Cato and Yankel Rosenbaum

For invaluable creative assistance: George C. Wolfe, Joanne Akalaitis, Merry Conway, Bonita Bradley, Thulani Davis, Deborah Hecht, Robert Williams, Kristin Linklater, Luly Santangelo, and Juanita Rice. The New York Shakespeare Festival, Rosemarie Tichler, Jason Steven Cohen, James Morrison, Bruce Campbell, and Cary Wong, for institutional support and more. The Bunting Institute, Florence Ladd, and Barbara Johnson, without whose support Fires in the Mirror could never have been written. The Stanford University Department of Drama, Michael Ramsaur; and Deans Ewart Thomas and Carolyn Lougee, the School of Humanities, and the Committee for Black Performing Arts at Stanford, for supporting my fellowship year at the Bunting Institute.

Cathy Clark and Mary Forcade at the Bay Area Playwrights Festival 91, for the work they did with me while I was writing Identities, Mirrors and Distortions, which provided the first structure for Fires in the Mirror. Lindsay Law and American Playhouse for making the show more accessible to the general public and Cherie Fortis for vigilant and sensitive producing. The Ford and Revson Foundations for their outreach support for the televised version of Fires in the Mirror. For research: Paula Cerrone. For friendship, mentorship, and discussion throughout the development of the On the Road series: Donald Bogle, Roberta Goodman, Glenn Young, Joy Carlin, Ted Hoffman, Denise Nicholas, Irene Mecchi, Blair Fuller, Peter and Carol Mack, John Emigh, Paula Vogel, Tania Modleski, Valerie Smith, Richard Yarborough, Jane Robinson, Michael Maynard, Kathy and Peter Leech, Tony Newfield, Randy Morey, David Terry, Hilda Silverman, Pat Kaufman, Sydne Mahone, Martha Jones, and Rhonda Blair. For their hard work, inventiveness, creativity, and participation in experiments, exercises, and productions related to the exploration of language, character, and difference: Pamela Putch, Maggie Jakobson, Jessica Schanberg, Joseph Phillips, Tamara Tunie, Lori Lowe, Joe Siracusa, Susan Dibble, Pricilla Shanks, Maryanna Austin, Taman Aseff, Lamont Johnson, Alex Thomas, Leah Tewles, Richard Harrison, Omar Wasow, Anna Scott, Bridgit Evans, Jane Lin, Alice Wu, Aleeta Hayes, Christina Rouner, Brett Heller, Gita Srinivasan, Kevin Stein, Theresa Player, Erica Nashan, Phillip Safley, and all of the actors and students who have worked with me, especially those I taught at Carnegie Mellon University, 197980; those in the first On the Road, in New York City, 1983; those at the American Conservatory Theatre during the summers of 1986, 1988, and 1989; and those at Stanford University, 199091.

For assistance: Jilchristina Vest. For their generosity and suggestions in Crown Heights: Robert Sherman, of the Increase the Peace Corps, City of New York; David Lazerson, Richard Green, and Henry Rice. For inspiration: Ricardo Kahn and the Crossroads Theatre Company; Tania Leon; Judith Jamison; Adrienne Kennedy and her play A Movie Star Has to Star in Black and White, which dramatically changed my perception of the relationship of language to character; Ntozake Shange for what her presence has done to redefine the position of Black women in American theatre; Peter Zeisler; Charlayne Hunter-Gault, one of my first interviewees, and for the only text that I performed in nearly every On the Road until Fires in the Mirror