The Bryan Series®

NYT Magazine: Anna Deavere Smith Relates Language to Character

Just days before her one-woman production of "Let Me Down Easy" opens at New York City's Second Stage Theater, Anna Deavere Smith was the subject of an extensive feature in The New York Times Magazine (Oct. 4).

In "Let Me Down Easy," Smith explores the power of the body, the price of health and the resilience of the spirit as she channels such notable individuals as Lance Armstrong and Ann Richards as well as others who are not so well known.

Susan Dominus, a regular contributor the magazine, writes this about the film and TV actress who has been a Tony and Pulitzer-nominee on the stage: "It’s in her hybrid capacity as playwright-documentarian-actress that Smith ... has had the biggest impact."

She adds, "Smith’s work has been highly influential, most notably (but not only) in the theater world. A handful of performers have imitated her documentary technique or fashioned their own versions of it."

Dominus notes that Smith, who came from a family of teachers, went to college thinking she would be a linguist. And even though she ended up in the theater, she never gave up her interest in language and speech.

She writes, "A theater critic once wrote that Smith doesn’t impersonate characters so much as she does impressions of their souls. As lovely as that sounds, it’s not what she’s striving for. Her project, since the ’70s, she told me, has been about trying to understand 'the relationship of language to character.'"

Smith speaks in the Bryan Series Feb. 28 (3:30 p.m.).

Yo-Yo Ma Participates in Sen. Ted Kennedy's Funeral Mass

Yo-Yo Ma participated in the funeral mass for Sen. Ted Kennedy Aug. 29 at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica in Roxbury, Mass. 

Ma performed Sarabande from Cello Suite No. 6 by J.S. Bach as a cello solo.  He was joined by tenor Placido Domingo and organist James David Christie in performing Panis Angelicus by Cesar Franck.

To view a New England Cable News video of Ma playing Sarabande, click here.

58 Senators, 21 former Senate members and four living Presidents of the United States including Barack Obama attended the funeral mass for the long-term Senator, who died Aug. 25 of brain cancer.  The President offered the eulogy.

Ma speaks in the Bryan Series Oct. 26.

NBC's coverage of Kennedy's death included commentary from past Bryan Series speakers Michael Beschloss (on the day of the funeral) and Doris Kearns Goodwin (on Meet the Press Aug. 30).  Beschloss spoke in February 2005 and Goodwin, in October 2000.

Amanpour Receives The Fourth Estate Award from National Press Club

Christiane Amanpour, who appeared in the Bryan Series Nov. 18, received the National Press Club's highest honor for excellence in journalism, The Fourth Estate Award, Nov. 21 in Washington, D.C.

The award is given annually to an individual who has achieved distinction for a lifetime of contributions to American journalism. Amanpour is the 36th recipient of the award. She is only the fourth female honoree and, at 50, one of the youngest ever to receive the award.

C-SPAN broadcast the award ceremony, which included a "roast" of Amanpour featuring former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright (2001 Bryan Series), Amanpour's CNN colleague Wolf Blitzer and others.

To view the program, click here.

North Carolina Public Radio-WUNC to Air Amanpour-Rubin Program on Jan. 2

The "America and the World" prorgram featuring Christiane Amanpour and James Rubin, presented in the Bryan Series Nov. 18, is scheduled to be aired by North Carolina Public Radio-WUNC on Friday, Jan. 2, at Noon.

The broadcast will be a special presentation of The State of Things, the weekday public affairs program hosted by Frank Stasio. Stasio was the moderator for the Q&A portion of the Nov. 18 program at War Memorial Auditorium.

Amanpour is the chief international correspondent for CNN and Rubin, her husband, as a deputy to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in the Clinton Administration. They made a joint presentation to 2,000 attendees in the Bryan Series.

North Carolina Public Radio-WUNC (91.5), is heard from central North Carolina to the coast. The station has been a media partner for the Bryan Series since 2004.

Listen online at www.wunc.org.

Amanpour to Host Nightly News Program on CNN International Beginning in 2009

Christiane Amanpour will anchor a nightly news show on CNN International beginning on a date to be determined in the second quarter of 2009. An edited version is expected to be shown on the weekends on CNN's United States channel.

The program will go after big interviews but also include reporting and round-table discussions, and it will join several other new programs on the network, which reaches about 240 million households worldwide.

Tony Maddox, executive vice president and managing director of CNN International, said: "Our thinking was we wanted a big, the biggest, name to hub our international prime time, and when it comes to global international superstars that list pretty much begins and ends with Christiane Amanpour."

For more about Amanpour's program, as reported by the New York Times, click here.

Amanpour's Latest Documentary, "Scream Bloody Murder," to Air on CNN Dec. 4

CNN chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour reports on the recurring nightmare of genocide and the largely unknown struggles of the heroes who witnessed evil in "CNN Presents: Scream Bloody Murder," which will premiere Dec. 4 at 9 p.m.

As the 60th anniversary of the United Nations' Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide approaches, Amanpour reports on the people who witnessed atrocities and "screamed bloody murder" for the international community to stop it.

Amanpour and her husband, James Rubin, spoke in the Bryan Series Nov. 18.

For more about the documentary, click here.

Amanpour: "This Election will Change the World"

Christiane Amanpour, chief international correspondent for CNN, wrote in the network's "In the Field" blog Nov. 4 that this year's election "will change the world."

Amanpour, who will speak in the Bryan Series with her husband, James Rubin, Tuesday, Nov. 18, wrote, "No election has electrified the U.S. like this since 1968. But the whole world wishes it could cast a vote in this one. Whatever happens, this U.S. election will change the world."

Amanpour and Rubin will make a joint series presentation entitled "America and the World." He is a former deputy Secretary of State.

To read the blog entry, click here.

Amanpour to Host CNN Program Featuring Former Secretaries of State Sept. 20

Chief International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour will host "The Next President: A World of Challenges," a conversation with five former U.S. Secretaries of State, Saturday, Sept. 20, at 9 p.m. on CNN.

Amanpour, who will speak in the Bryan Series Tuesday, Nov. 18, along with James Rubin, will be discussing world affairs with Colin Powell, Madeleine Albright and other former Secretaries of State. Powell and Albright spoke in the Bryan Series in December 1999 and November 2001, respectively.

Longtime correspondent Frank Sesno will co-host the Sept. 20 program with Amanpour.

Christiane Amanpour Reports on "Buddha's Warriors" on CNN Aug. 2-3

Christiane Amanpour, a Bryan Series speaker this coming year, will report on Buddhism in a new installment of the CNN Special Investigations Unit series Aug. 2-3.

The 1-hour program, "Buddha's Warriors," explores the Buddhists' use of peace in the quest for freedom and democracy. It is scheduled to air at 8 pm and 11 pm Saturday and Sunday and 2 am Sunday and Monday. For more on the program, visit http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/siu.

Amanpour, CNN's chief international correspondent, will appear in the Bryan Series Nov. 18 along with her husband, former Assistant Secretary of State James Rubin.

CNN’s Amanpour to Replace Russert in Bryan Series on Nov. 18

Christiane Amanpour, CNN’s chief international correspondent, will replace the late Tim Russert in this year’s Bryan Series. She will present a program entitled “America and the World” with her husband, former Assistant Secretary of State James Rubin, on Tuesday, Nov. 18, at 7:30 p.m. at War Memorial Auditorium.  Russert died suddenly on June 13.

Amanpour is best known for her reporting from war zones and hot spots around the world, ranging from Iraq and Afghanistan to the Balkans to the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast. Her work, the cornerstone for CNN’s coverage of major international events, includes exclusive interviews with figures such as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Yasser Arafat, Tony Blair and Pervez Musharraf, among other world leaders

Her recent work has focused on the production of a series of highly acclaimed long-form programs that have aired across the CNN networks. In 2007, she presented a six-hour series on the world’s three leading monotheistic religions and their defenders, “God’s Warriors.”

Amanpour is the recipient of numerous honors, including two George Foster Peabody Awards and nine Emmy Awards. A native of London who lived in Iran as a child, Amanpour’s family left that country after  the 1979 coup. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Rhode Island with a bachelor of arts in journalism.

As assistant secretary of state and chief spokesman for the State Department, Rubin served as top adviser to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and oversaw efforts to communicate with the public regarding foreign policy. Since leaving the State Department, he has been a visiting professor at the London School of Economics and Columbia University, and is a regular commentator for the Financial Times, the BBC and CNN.  He is a graduate of Columbia.

The 2008-09 Bryan Series opens with author Khaled Hosseini on Friday, Oct. 24. Following the Amanpour-Rubin program, the series continues with Salman Rushdie (Feb. 10) and Anna Quindlen (April 14).

Season passes are now on sale at the Greensboro Coliseum Advance Box Office, online at www.guilford.edu/bryanseries or by calling 336-218-5550.  Passes for new subscribers are $80. Single-event tickets are scheduled to be sold beginning Sept. 15.