When Anna Deavere Smith walked down a path in Bolinas, Calif., and wanted to pet a fluffy dog, she immediately had to walk away. There was a wolf standing at the edge, watching her and her friends.

“I felt as if the wolf could see everything I had ever done,” Smith said. “It felt like judgment day.”

Smith, a playwright, actress and New York University professor, had to ask herself how much she resembled the fluffy dog. As an artist, she said she has been reaching to be in “twilight,” or the space in between.

“What have I given up?” she had asked herself. “Am I a fluffy dog? Or do I have the wolf left inside of me?”

Throughout Tuesday night’s University Lecture, “Snapshots: Portraits of a World in Transition,” Smith explored different virtues, such as grace and kindness, with the audience. She also shared her own personal life experiences by acting out “snapshots” of people in Hendricks Chapel.

“Even if I don’t believe the people I portray are in me, I sometimes do see a kind of familiar things,” Smith said.

Smith, a runner-up for the Pulitzer Prize and two-time Tony award nominee, said she takes away certain things from the people she portrays in acting. Whether it’s humorous or serious, she asks if there is a way to respond to the world in a more meaningful way.

Smith is well-known as an author and performer of one-woman, multi-character plays that deal with social issues in the U.S., according to the University Lectures website.

In “Static,” Smith’s first snapshot, she portrayed a Jewish woman who couldn’t turn off a radio because the Torah said so. She had to convince a little black boy down the street to turn it off for her, making her look dumb in the process.

Her second snapshot was of former Texas Gov. Ann Richards. As Smith was acting out the role of Richards recently undergoing chemotherapy, she had the audience participate in the dialogue, filling the room with laughter at her Texan accent.

“I can’t talk to you right now, you’re using up my chi,” Smith said as Richards.

Smith was able to make the audience not only laugh, but also cry in a matter of minutes with her personal snapshot of her Aunt Lorraine. In the monologue called “Gloves,” she acted as her aunt reminiscing about putting her hands in her mother’s arms after school during the Great Depression. Their family of eight couldn’t afford gloves and their mother would greet them with her open arms to warm them up in the cold.

While acting as Rabbi David Wolpe, Smith spoke to the audience about God and the fault of mankind. Wolpe stressed all humans make mistakes.

“I think that the line of good and evil lives inside every human being,” Smith said as Wolpe.

Exploring the topics of domestic violence and racism, Smith portrayed a woman in a correctional institution and Congressman John Lewis. The final snapshot, “Brother,” recounted the congressman forgiving a Ku Klux Klan member. The KKK member called him brother and Lewis reciprocated.

Daniel Chavarriaga, a sophomore acting major, said he has performed monologues from her play, “Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992,” and wanted to see her perform.

“I’m inspired by what she did,” Chavarriaga said. “I really thought she did a really good job and how she captivated their emotional state. That was just awesome.”

Miranda Williams, a senior psychology and women and gender studies major, said Smith’s lecture was moving. Her favorite snapshot was “Gloves,” because of Smith’s personal connection to her aunt.

“Her acting was incredible,” Williams said. “It was really real.”

Published on March 26, 2014 at 1:34 am

Contact Jackie: jmfrere@syr.edu | @jackie_frere