Philadelphia Theatre Company to Welcome Anna Deavere Smith

Philadelphia Theatre Company presents MacArthur Award-winning actress, playwright, and educator Anna Deavere Smith in a special presentation of selected excerpts from her latest work in progress, Notes >From the Field: Doing Time in Education, on Monday, February 8 at 7:00 PM at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre (Broad and Lombard Streets). Tickets starting at $15 are available by calling the PTC Box Office at 215-985-0420 or visiting PhiladelphiaTheatreCompany.org.

Notes From the Field: Doing Time in Education is comprised of material collected through Smith's interviews in several cities, including Philadelphia, with more than 100 individuals who are affected by what has been commonly called the "school-to-prison pipeline," which, by pushing children out of the classroom into the criminal justice system has created a lost generation of youth from poor communities. In Act One, Smith performs striking portraits of those affected by the pipeline, which could also be called simply the poverty to prison pipeline. She captures the dynamics of a rapidly shifting social issue through her trademark performance technique of performing those she has interviewed verbatim. Act Two belongs to the audience. As Smith's goal is to enhance civic engagement around the issue of disenfranchised youth, she has set aside what would normally be the second act, so that the audience can participate in a facilitated dialogue. She invites the audience to accept the challenge of being active agents of change.

PTC, with support from the Wyncote Foundation and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, hosted a residency for Ms. Smith in 2014 where she interviewed close to thirty subjects and met with key civic leaders. This past summer, she performed a fuller version of the play at Berkeley Rep which, while being a work-in-progress, was cited by Charles McNulty of the Los Angeles Times, as "one of the best theater experiences of 2015."

"This is a broader problem that is linked to poverty, and the question is how do we help people become productive citizens." said Smith. "Theater has the opportunity to really draw more people in, and particularly to a place in their heart, where they might just make an adjustment about how they think about things. It is also a convening place where people who would otherwise be strangers can share ideas about how to make their city and their nation better.

Anna Deavere Smith appeared at PTC in Let Me Down Easy in 2011 for which she won the Barrymore Award for Best Actress and helped kick off PTC's Theatre Masters Series last season. She is arguably most recognizable in popular culture as Nancy McNally, national security advisor on NBC's long-running hit The West Wing and as Gloria Akalitus on Showtime's current hit series Nurse Jackie. The recipient of the prestigious MacArthur Award, Smith's work blends theatrical art, social commentary, journalism and intimate musings. Twilight: Los Angeles received two Tony nominations, an OBIE, Drama Desk Award, and a Special Citation from the New York Drama Critics Circle, and Fires in the Mirror, examining a race riot in Crown Heights, Brooklyn (1991), when age-old racial tensions between black and Jewish neighbors exploded, received an OBIE Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. She was the 2013 recipient of the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize awarded to "a man or a woman who has made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and mankind's enjoyment and understanding of life." She is the recipient of numerous honorary degrees, including those from Juilliard, The University of Pennsylvania, Arcadia, Northwestern, Williams College, Radcliffe, Haverford College, Bryn Mawr College, Barnard, Spelman, The John Jay College of Criminal Justice and many more.

Excerpts from Notes from the Field: Doing Time in Education will be presented during the run of PTC's production of Exit Strategy by Ike Holter, an East Coast premiere co-produced with New York's Primary Stages and which plays until February 28. Exit Strategy concerns a dilapidated public school in Chicago targeted for closure and the power struggles that ensue among the faculty and students desperate to keep it open.

PTC's 2015-2016 season continues with the Philadelphia premiere of Sex with Strangers by Laura Eason, a co-production with George Street Playhouse (April 8 - May 8) and the East Coast premiere of Hillary and Clinton by Lucas Hnath (May 27 - June 26). On February 29, PTC's 2016 Theatre Masters interview series will kick off with actress and director Kathleen Turner.

Founded in 1974, Philadelphia Theatre Company is a leading regional theatre company that produces, develops and presents entertaining and imaginative contemporary theatre focused on the American experience. By developing new work through commissions, readings and workshops, PTC generates a national impact and reaches broad regional audiences. Under the guidance of PTC's Executive Producing Director, Sara Garonzik, since 1982 and Executive Managing Director Priscilla M. Luce, who joined the leadership team in early April of 2013, PTC supports the work of a growing body of diverse dramatists and takes pride in being a home to many nationally recognized artists who have participated in more than 140 world and Philadelphia premieres. PTC has received 57 Barrymore Awards and 180 nominations. PTC's home on the Avenue of the Arts, the Suzanne Roberts Theatre which opened in October 2007, has helped revitalize of Center City Philadelphia's thriving arts district.

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