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| Anna Deavere Smith in "Notes from the Field: Doing Time in Education" (photo: Evgenia Eliseeva) |
Rarely have the historic and the histrionic combined as
seamlessly as they do in the current
American Repertory Theater production of Anna Deavere
Smith's Notes from the Field: Doing Time in Education, which
begins as a monologue and segues into a dialogue. For the past three
decades or more, Smith has created and nurtured a novel form of
documentary theater. For this experience, she has created and
written, and now performs, what is referred to as Act I, a series of
monologues based on hundreds of interviews with people of
extraordinarily different backgrounds (a Native American fisherman, a
videographer, a protester, a pastor, and so on). After a couple of
monologues that seemed hasty, Smith settled in for a very powerful,
brilliant set of monologues that formed the first act. For Act II,
however, she had other plans.
This is the New England premiere of the piece, after
several workshops and in other venues across the country, from the
West Coast to Pennsylvania to the East Coast (including Smith's
hometown of Baltimore). It evolved into an interactive talk-back that
was an integral part of the show itself. Based on some 250
interviews by Smith, it portrays the pervasive and abhorrent
“school-to-prison pipeline” that often disproportionately impacts
minorities, and the “zero tolerance” policies that lead to
counterproductive suspensions of students over non-violent
misconduct. It was this controversy that led to the audience being
divided into groups to be led by trained facilitators, as opposed to
the typical reaction that Smith refers to as “always talking about
this conversation on race that we're going to have, but when do we do
it? We never have it.” Following this Act II, Smith sums up the
evening with a Coda that includes a quote from one of the nation's
true heroes, still-serving Congressman John Lewis, from his
participation in the March to Selma.
The technical elements were all simple, professional and
focused, from the Set Design by Riccardo Hernandez, to the Costume
Design by Ann Hould-Ward, the Lighting Design by Howell Binkley, the
Sound Design by Dan Moses Schreier and especially the varied
Projection Design by Elaine McCarthy. The effective Music Composition
was performed live by bassist Marcus Shelby, who describes his
contributions as encompassing call/response, improv, inflection and
tension/release. It should also be noted that the program notes are
unusually helpful, no surprise given that much is the product of the
work of Dramaturg Alisa Solomon (author of last year's terrific
Wonder of Wonders, a Cultural History of Fiddler on the Roof).
Director Leonard Foglia likens this work to a
documentary film with “civic engagement”, more a “community
gathering than as a staged work of art”. Based on audience
reactions (including the “call/response” effect alluded to above,
common in evangelical churches), in a sense the wrong audience was
present rather than the people who haven't yet gotten the message.
The reality is that this audience seemed already aware of the crises
that are addressed. In the end, though the theme of life with hope
and faith was reinforced, it was yet another frustrating but honest
example of preaching to the saved.
