Listen to New Voices on Studs Terkel our partnership with 826CHI-here! Read the Story
Anna Deavere Smith discusses and demonstrates her unique character portrayals from her works "Fires in the Mirror" and "Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992."
Studs interviews Allen Stone, Steven Larson, and Judith Erickson about the opera, "Regina," playing at the Chicago Opera Theater. They describe the variety of music and dances in the opera. Stone, Larson, and Erickson name the cast and their roles and describe the characters. Each share how they came to be in theater. Stone explains how the company started. Larson describes the orchestra and the chorus. Erickson reads some of the lyrics of the aria, "The Best Thing of All," at the end of act one. Stone, Larson, and Erickson read various lines from the opera.
Content Warning: This conversation includes racially and/or culturally derogatory language and/or negative depictions of Black and Indigenous people of color, women, and LGBTQI+ individuals. Rather than remove this content, we present it in the context of twentieth-century social history to acknowledge and learn from its impact and to inspire awareness and discussion. Verna Bloom continues to talk about how scared she was when being arrested. Bloom said she was hand-cuffed for an hour. One of Bloom's friends was able to smooth things over with the police and she was finally released.
The day after being arrested in Chicago, Verna Bloom talks about the outrage and humiliation she felt. In great detail, she describes what led up to her arrest. Bloom contends she was doing nothing other than enjoying the nice weather when a police officer arrested her.