Wat IS It:

One person play

By ​Anna Deavere Smith

Composed of monologues taken from transcripts of interviews she did with the people the
characters are based on
Pionering example of Verbatim theatre

She interview
More than 100 people
Received this award ​Drama Desk Award for Outstanding One-Person Show​.

Part of a larger project called “​On the Road: A Search for the American Character”
It was made up of monologues created from interviews she conducted with people

It chronicles the Crown Heights riot of 1991 which took place in the Crown Heights
neighbourhood which had a population made up largely of African Americans and Chabad
Hasidic Jews

The play had 26 individual characters which mean you would need a skilled actor

Character List: (26 characters)

● Ntozake Shange​:​ 42- to 45-year-old African-American playwright, poet, novelist.

● Anonymous Lubavitcher Woman:​ Jewish mid-thirties preschool teacher.
● George C. Wolfe​:​ African-American playwright who was also director/producer of the New York Shakespeare Festival. (served
1993–2004)
● Aaron M. Bernstein:​ Jewish man in his fifties. Physicist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
● Anonymous Girl:​ A junior high, teen-age black girl of Haitian descent. Lives in Brooklyn. (near Crown Heights)
● The Reverend ​Al Sharpton​:​ Well-known African-American New York activist and minister.
● Rivkah Siegal:​ Lubavitcher woman. Graphic designer. Age unspecified.
● Angela Davis​:​ Prominent African-American activist in her late 40s. Author, orator, and scholar. Then a Professor in the History of
Consciousness Department at the ​University of California, Santa Cruz​.
● Monique 'Big Mo' Matthews:​ African-American rapper in Los Angeles.
● Leonard Jeffries​:​ African-American Professor of African American Studies at ​City University of New York​, where he was former chair of
the department.
● Letty Cottin Pogrebin​:​ Author and founding editor of ​Ms. Magazine​. Of Jewish descent and in her fifties.
● Minister Conrad Mohammed:​ African-American minister of New York associated with the ​Nation of Islam​; he later became a Baptist. He
served as minister for ​Louis Farrakhan​.
● Robert F. Sherman:​ Executive Director of the City of New York's Increase the Peace Corps (part of the Mayor's Office).​
[3]

● Rabbi Joseph Spielman:​ Spokesperson in the Luabvitch community.

● Reverend Canon Doctor Heron Sam:​ African-American pastor at St. Mark's Crown Heights Church.
● Anonymous Young Man #1:​ resident of Crown Heights, Caribbean-American man in his late teens or early twenties.
● Michael S. Miller:​ Executive Director of the Jewish Community Relations Council.
● Henry Rice:​ Crown Heights resident.
● Norman Rosenbaum:​ Brother of Yankel Rosenbaum, an Australian.
● Anonymous Young Man #2:​ Crown Heights resident, an African-American young man in his late teens or early twenties.
● Sonny Carson:​ African-American activist.
● Rabbi Shea Hecht:​ middle-aged Lubavitcher rabbi, spokesperson.
● Richard Green:​ Director of the Crown Heights Youth Collective and Co-director of Project CURE (a black-Hasidic basketball team that
was developed after the riots)
● Roslyn Malamud:​ Lubavitcher resident of Crown Heights.
● Reuven Ostrov:​ Lubavitcher youth and member of project CURE, 17 years old at the time of the riot. He worked as an assistant chaplain
at Kings County Hospital.
● Carmel Cato:​ Father of Gavin Cato, immigrant from ​Guyana​ and resident of Crown Heights

 
Presentation  
 
Author 
 
Anna Deavere smith 
 
Born in 1950 in Baltimore Maryland 
 
Educated at Arcadia university  
 
Began career in acting in 1970s entered film and tv in 1980s 
 
Regular work in tv and film with some recurring roles in shows spanning 
across decades 
 
Stage career switched to writing in 1990s with the one woman show and 
focus of this presentation Fires in the mirror 
Her notable stage work from this point on was largely one woman shows and 
projects in which she served as the writer 
 
Books; she written 2 books letters to a young artist and talk to me which is 
about finding the “American character” 
 
The play 
 
 
Motorcade of a local rabbi hit Guyanese kids 
 
Rabbi removed by hatzolah ambulance, people believed they were unwilling to 
help non jews 
 
In response Yankee Rosenbaum Jewish student was stabbed  
 
 
The catalyst which caused over a million dollars of damage left hundreds 
injured and community divided 
 
Process of creation 
 
Campion Decent  
 
Conceived Collected collated 
  
Listening to podcast about crisis and theatre