Actress Anna Deveare Smith to Perform One-Woman Show at Stanford Today

Actress and playwright Anna Deavere Smith will make a visit to the  Thursday. The event, sponsored by the medical school and the Stanford Cancer Institute, will take place in the Paul and Mildred Berg Hall of the Li Ka Shing Center for Learning and Knowledge.

A former professor of the arts at Stanford, Smith will perform excerpts from her acclaimed, one-woman show, Let Me Down Easy, which is on national tour and is playing at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre through July 10.

The play brings to light questions about the human body, the resilience of the human spirit and the cost of health care. During the eight-year development of this project, Smith interviewed hundreds of subjects, including Dr. Philip Pizzo, dean of the School of Medicine, whom she portrays on stage.

Smith plays a hospital administrator in the Showtime series, Nurse Jackie. Among her previous theatrical works are solo montages about the 1992 Los Angeles riots, Twilight: Los Angeles; and the 1991 riots in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, Fires in the Mirror.

The event is scheduled to begin with a reception at 1 p.m., followed by a conversation and question-and-answer session with Paul Costello, the medical school’s chief communications officer, from 1:30-2:30 p.m.

For additional information, e-mail the School of Medicine's special events department at events@med.stanford.edu or call 650-361-0995.