Chicago Tribune
- Recommended
"...Which brings us to “Notes from the Field,” a piece themed around education and the criminal justice system that opened Thursday night in Chicago for the first time. It’s quite a different work, still made up of many interviews, but they’re fused far more in service of a potent authorial statement deconstructing the so-called school-to-prison pipeline, more so than a journalistic-style collage of different points of view. Smith performed the 2015 show herself in many cities, but not in Chicago, where the skilled director Mikael Burke currently has cast the fine actors Mildred Marie Langford, Shariba Rivers and Adhana Reid to share the spotlight."
Chicago Reader
- Recommended
"...Actors Mildred Marie Langford, Adhana Reid, and Shariba Rivers are chameleons, melting seamlessly from one character into another, transforming from young to old, man to woman, Black to Indigenous American to Latinx. The nimble scenic, costume, and projection designs (created by Eleanor Kahn, Christine Pascual, and Rasean Davonte Johnson, respectively) provide simple but evocative backdrops for such complex content."
Chicago Stage and Screen
- Recommended
"...This is not an easy or entertaining work: it is a deep and thoughtful and sometimes uncomfortable dive into who we are in America and the shameful history that has brought us to this moment. It is an important play and should be experienced. The more than two and a half hour show feels long at points but the fact that we cannot become a better version of ourselves after hundreds of years feels even longer. There are so many layers and perspectives here and each deserves their time."
Let's Play Theatrical Reviews
- Highly Recommended
"...Notes From The Field symbolizes that same call from Joshua to the 12 tribes in Isreal that removed stones from the riverbed as a memorial to God's love when they crossed the Jordan River, which He has stopped miraculously—which reminds us that we as a people should remember the pains of the bondage placed on others simply because of the different hues. We should not run from it, ignore it, and be silent, but embrace and learn from it so we never follow that road again. Well, at least, this is what I got from the play."
Around The Town Chicago
- Highly Recommended
"...Simple set, powerful and moving performances, thought provoking content and a challenge to us all to make a difference...to recognize that we have a long way to go..and the road to justice is not pretty...."
Chicago Theatre Review
- Recommended
"...“Notes from the Field” is not entertaining in the traditional sense. It’s undeniably dynamic, emotional and rouses our senses through the masterful performances of its three accomplished actresses. Director Mikael Burke has molded Anna Deavere Smith’s gritty, interview-based documentary into a vibrant, mind-blowing production that, while seldom amusing or cheerful, it’s definitely captivating, sometimes shocking and particularly poignant. It all starts with listening to these many unfiltered voices."
Buzz Center Stage
- Highly Recommended
"...Notes from the Field is documentary theatre, and comprised of verbatim dialogue pulled from more than 250 accounts from students, faculty, prisoners, activists, politicians, and victims’ families. Smith conducted these interviews during President Barack Obama’s term, and while this may not quite be present day, the subject matter is certainly contemporary. Over the course of the play, we meet 19 individuals – all fighting to overcome and change America’s educational and criminal justice systems – especially with the tendency to focus on incarceration."
The Fourth Walsh
- Highly Recommended
"...Playwright Anna Deavere Smith gives a platform for these true stories to be heard and understood. Smith captures individuals’ voices sharing their experiences. Each narration is riddled with personality. An aging congressman reflecting on a brutal beating. A dishwasher explaining his resignation with an ongoing litany of ‘you feel me?’ And a Finnish teacher grappling with why anyone needs handcuffs in a classroom. Each person brings a different perspective anchored in honesty."
Third Coast Review
- Highly Recommended
"...Director Mikael Burke divides Notes From the Field among three actors: Mildred Marie Langford, Shariba Rivers and Adhana Reid. The three, listed only as Actor 1, 2 and 3 in the program, inhabit the people of Notes from the Field with such veracity and variety that each one jumps to life. Every scene makes a lasting impression but some of the standouts include Langford as activist lawyer Bryan Stevenson, Reid as Niya Kenny and Rivers as the Rev. Pastor Jamal Harrison Bryant, who delivers a stemwinder sermon at Freddie Gray’s funeral.'
MaraTapp.org
- Highly Recommended
"...Take the pulse of the state of Blackness in America with Anna Deavere Smith’s unstintingly honest portrayal currently at TimeLine. Notes from the Field offers a layered, and therefore insightful, view into what happened to our country’s educational and criminal justice systems to bring us to where we are. It is not a night without hope, but it is a night that will open your eyes and break your heart with its gripping words and powerful acting."
Chicago Culture Authority
- Highly Recommended
"...Mildred Marie Langford, Adhana Reid and Shariba Rivers do a uniformly excellent job of delivering these 19 monologues and imbuing each person they portray-including students, academics, pastors, prisoners, activists, politicians and victims' families-with distinct humanity."
Splash Magazine
- Recommended
"...One of the finest aspects of Smith’s play is its unblinking fidelity to reality, focusing as it does on the actual words, as relayed to Smith, of what actually happened to each of the 19 individuals, supplemented by footage of actual incidents captured by witnesses and projected behind the actors. (The projections designer is Rasean Davonté Johnson.) It isn’t as if no conclusions are drawn — they are, and powerfully so, but not by means of authorial intrusion, patronizing lectures or tiresome agit-prop, but by direct witness and participant accounts."
BroadwayWorld
- Highly Recommended
"...With NOTES FROM THE FIELD, playwright Anna Deavere Smith once again proves she's a master of her genre of theatrical storytelling. Known for her documentary (or verbatim) plays, Smith presents monologues from 19 different interviews in this exploration of the school-to-prison pipeline in America. By allowing her interview subjects to literally speak for themselves, Smith has mastered the art of showing and not telling. NOTES FROM THE FIELD has a clear agenda; it's a searing condemnation of the systemic failings of the American judicial, police, educational, and penitentiary institutions - and most notably a condemnation of the ways in which those systems have failed Black and Brown Americans."
NewCity Chicago
- Highly Recommended
"...TimeLine’s The new production of Smith’s play by TimeLine uses three remarkably versatile and talented actors—Mildred Marie Langford, Shariba Rivers and Adhana Reid—to portray nineteen different people in an intimate, compelling evening of theater. You’ll leave feeling both shaken and exhilarated, able to see America’s racial problems and school-to-prison pipeline with fresh eyes."
