Celebrating the birth & legacy of

ANNA DEAVERE SMITH

TWILIGHT: LOS ANGELES, 1992

Celebrating her words through our voice
with a monologue performed by
Actors Co-op Theatre Company member, Crystal Jackson

More on Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992

Anna Deavere Smith is an actress, playwright, teacher, and author. Her one-woman plays examine the social issues behind current events. Approaching the subject from multiple points of view, Smith’s theater combines the journalistic technique of interviewing her subjects with the art of interpreting their words through performance.

Her play Twilight: Los Angeles,1992 had its World Premiere in Los Angeles at the Mark Taper Forum. The play focuses on the civil unrest in Los Angeles following the April, 1992, verdict in the first Rodney King trial and is presented from the perspective of over 300 people that Smith interviewed.

From these interviews, she chose numerous subjects to feature as characters in the play including LAPD chief Daryl Gates, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, a nameless juror on the Rodney King police trial, various victims and instigators of violence in South Central including white truck driver Reginald Denny, who was beaten and residents of greater Los Angeles.

The play’s name comes from Twilight Bey, the Watts Gang Truce Activist, who is portrayed in the play as a figure of hope.

Twilight: Los Angeles,1992 opened on Broadway in 1994. It was nominated for two Tony Awards (Best Play and Best Actress) and won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance.

Today, we continue to celebrate Anna Deavere Smith’s birthday and legacy with a monologue from Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992, performed by Actors Co-op Theatre Company member, Crystal Jackson.

“I don’t know if I have an agenda, but I have a desire. The desire is to create theater that is fuller than traditional theater—that allows us to see more kinds of people represented—and to attract to that theater a more diverse audience of people. Diverse not just in terms of race but in terms of a social class and lifestyle. To try and get people to think of theater as more than this precious thing that only certain people can see, more than high art, but as communities.”

— Anna Deveare Smith

Learn more about ANNA DEAVERE SMITH:

Read More:
Talk to Me: Travels in Media & Politics

Watch More:
Anna Deavere Smith performs
Twilight: Los Angeles

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