Fires in the Mirror

Racial tensions boil over in the University Theatre production about the 1991 race riots in Crown Heights, Brooklyn:

It's about what happened in a neighborhood with two groups living strictly separate lives: Orthodox Hasidic Jews and African and Caribbean Americans. It was a tense coexistence until a rabbi’s motorcade ran over a couple of black children, killing one. A few hours later, a visiting Jewish scholar was stabbed to death in revenge by angry young men. Then the entire neighborhood erupted into rioting and violence for three days. 

Playwright Anna Deavere Smith took a fascinating docudrama approach: interviewing real people who had been there, weaving their stories as direct quotes in a play and performing them each as perfect literal representations… all by herself. Director David Saltz adds a twist to this production while remaining faithful to the original concept of seeing a person embody wildly different people onstage. He has an ensemble of 13 actors, each of whom portrays multiple diverse characters in the way that Smith originally performed them all. 

Area school kids are enjoying a matinee performance in Seney Stovall this very morning - what a tremendous experience for each and every one of them, plus our student performers and technicians. The production continues through this weekend at the Seney Stovall Chapel at 8 pm each evening plus another matinee on Sunday at 2:30 pm. Get your tickets here.

Image: FIRES IN THE MIRROR PR photos by Clay Chastain.