In its third story in two months on Anna Deavere Smith's one-woman play, "Let Me Down Easy," the New York Times on Nov. 9 lauds her treatment of health care and end-of-life issues. The play has been extended through Dec. 6 at the off-Broadway Second Stage Theater.
The play was nine years and 300 interviews with famous and not-so-famous Americans and originated about a decade ago when the chairman of the department of medicine at Yale invited her to interview doctors and patients and perform their words for the medical staff, Smith says.
"I try to embody America by embodying its words," she says about her plays. In this case, they are words about the deepest human experiences: mortality and nobility of character, perseverance, hope and acceptance.
Smith will speak in the Bryan Series Sunday, Feb. 28 (3:30 p.m.).
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