TimeLine Theatre to present Chicago premiere of Notes From The Field
TimeLine Theatre Company will cast a light on America's school-to-prison pipeline with its Chicago premiere of Notes from the Field by Anna Deavere Smith, one of the most accomplished theater artists of our time.
Director Mikael Burke will make his TimeLine Theatre debut staging Notes from the Field, hot on the heels of his critically acclaimed productions of Blues for an Alabama Sky for Remy Bumppo and Tambo & Bones for Refracted Theatre Company.
Hailed by The New York Times as "a searing and urgent work that confronts some of the most pressing issues of our time with honesty, intelligence, and compassion," Notes from the Field is an innovative first-person documentary piece that shines a bright light on the stories of those caught in America's school-to-prison pipeline. Utilizing verbatim dialogue pulled from more than 250 real accounts from students, faculty, prisoners, activists, politicians, and victims' families, Notes from the Field takes audiences on a powerful and emotional journey through the faults and systemic injustices of the American criminal justice system.
In sum, Smith gives voice to 18 real-life people, including Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund; Rev. Jamal Harrison Bryant, who eulogized Freddie Gray in Baltimore; Niya Kenny, the high school student who confronted a violent police deputy-all caught on film; activist Bree Newsome, who took the Confederate flag down from the South Carolina State House grounds; and many others. She ends the play with the late Congressman John Lewis, who personifies both a violent time in American history with the civil rights movement, and the promise of what American character is all about.
Originally performed as a one-woman show by creator Anna Deavere Smith, this 2017 Obie Award-winning production was hailed by The Guardian as "captivating political theatre, a devastating document of racial inequality and the most rousing of rallying calls. Everyone should watch it, at least once." Deeply human, profoundly moving, and full of moments of humor, compassion, and resilience, it's a masterful work that makes it impossible to look away from the urgent need for change.
Said TimeLine Artistic Director PJ Powers, "Notes from the Field is the latest installment of what Anna Deavere Smith has referred to as her life's work: a series of plays she calls On the Road: A Search for American Character. It's a provocation, highlighting on-the-ground difference-makers who, in their own way, are instigators of change, from household names to a few brave Americans who were unexpectedly thrust into the spotlight of history as outspoken voices for change."