During PBS' GREAT PERFORMANCES “Let Me Down Easy” session at the TCA Winter Press Tour in Pasadena, CA on Thursday, January 5, 2012, author, playwright and actress Anna Deavere Smith (“Fires in the Mirror,” “Twilight Los Angeles,” “Nurse Jackie”) and series executive producer David Horn discuss Deavere Smith’s portrayal of a range of individuals who are confronting the price and politics of health. (Premieres Friday, January 13, 2012)

By: Valerie Milano – Pasadena, CA (Hollywood Today) 1/10/12

 The talented Anna Deavere Smith brings her one woman show from the Mead Center for American Theater by “Great Performances” in airing on PBS on January 13th. It’s been said she had created her own, new form of theater through her combination of interviewing, interpretation and performance.

 Smith performs an intimate portrait of life and death, sickness and the health care system through her inspired and original style of interviewing hundreds of people from around the world and sharing their words.

“Great Performances” executive producer David Horn told HT “Anna’s theater begins with the reporter’s technique of interviewing her subjects, and she does literally hundreds for each play and then magically interprets those words verbatim in a performance that goes far deeper than mere impersonation.”

For those who haven’t made it out to the theater, PBS is the next best option. Ms. Smith delivers in-character performances becoming 19 of her interviewees from Lance Armstrong to a rodeo bull rider. This year at the winter press tour, journalists were treated to 4 of these moving and wonderful performances.

“Thank you for being here. When I was a girl, my grandfather said that if you say a word often enough, it becomes you, and David Horn’s description of my work comes from that, a desire to absorb America by absorbing the words of the people who I’ve spoken to over many, many of these past too many years” began Smith.

The project began after an invitation from Yale School of Medicine who requested “make a piece about doctors and patients and perform it at the medical grand rounds. And I really put them off for a couple of years, mainly because I didn’t want to make a fool of myself in front of doctors.” She told HT.

“I finally showed up at Yale with my tape recorder. I turned it on, I mean, to prepare, you know, to interview people in Washington, you’ve got to read their books. You’ve got to take them out to lunch. I asked one question of those interviewees at Yale, just one, what happened to you?”

Newsweek magazine dubbed Smith “the most exciting individual in American theater”. Anna Deavere Smith has won two Obie Awards and been nominated for 2 Tony awards. She took runner-up for the Pulitzer Prize  for her play “Fires in the Mirror” and is a recipient of the prized MacArthur fellowship.