Smith gives voice to broken promise
How do you help fix an education system that is failing those who need it most? If you are Anna Deavere Smith, you write a play that gets people talking. The actor-writer is back at the American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) with a one-woman show that explores the failings of U.S. schools and the inequality that makes a good education an increasingly elusive goal for millions of kids. Based on close to 250 interviews Smith conducted over several years, “Notes from the Field: Doing Time in Education,” which opened Aug. 20, dramatizes the words and experiences of witnesses and victims of violence around the country, including in classrooms. In her trademark style, Smith takes on myriad roles: principal, politician, jaded student, a former inmate who was never given a chance in school. She inhabits with equal verve Pastor Jamal Bryant, who spoke at Freddie Gray’s funeral; author James Baldwin; and Civil Rights leader and...