In 2015 the famed playwright of “verbatim” or “documentary” theater Anna Deavere Smith created a solo show called Notes From The Field. Drawn from more than 200 interviews with students, parents, teachers administrators, Smith played multiple characters who talk about the school-to-prison pipeline. Notes From the Field is even more pertinent today and Portland Playhouse is about to open the show on February 19, 2025 after a short postponement.

Dmae Lo Roberts interviewed the solo show actress Ramona Lisa Alexander and director Jackie Davis on location at Portland Playhouse, and they talked about performing and directing a solo show with live music, the real people presented in the show, the stereotyping of Black students in school, and how to find grace and nurture one’s self in the world today.

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Here’s an excerpt from this podcast…

Ramona:  ” Notes from the Field is really profound in that it focuses a lot on the school-to-prison pipeline, focuses a lot on how we got … where we are. (The show) is taking a real lens into Black and Brown children, especially young boys and girls who are impacted.  And so, what are the factors that are playing in that when we look at our community as a whole; is it, could it be the parents? Is it the schools? Is it, is it society? Is it, you know, politics?”

 Jackie: “Ms. Deavere Smith did (the play) 10 years ago, then as a call to action, right? So now if times were different socially and politically, it would be a hearken back. But we can’t hearken back because this is still in front of us, especially now, especially looking at the Department of Education and what it’s being asked to do, looking at the funds being taken away from universities, looking at DEI becoming eradicated across the board outside of education.”

Ramona:  ”We didn’t want to put trauma porn onstage, and as Black people who are working on this piece, having to relive this over and over again. How can I do that and put my body through that over and over again?  Under (Jackie’s) guidance and direction, she’s handled it with a lot of care. She’s paid close attention to the text and the words and asked really great questions to get under the surface … it’s not a dark cloud glooming over us the whole time where we’re talking about, again, these heavy issues, but there’s moments of light and hope. And joy.”

About the Actress

Ramona Lisa Alexander is Portland Playhouse’s Community Programs and Associate Artistic Director. Previous to joining the Playhouse in 2019, Ramona was the Director of Programs for the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI) and the Fairmount Cultural Corridor initiative (FCC) in Boston, Mass. She served an integral role in the strategic planning process to form the Upham’s Arts and Innovation District with the City of Boston and Boston Planning and Redevelopment Authority, Working Advisory Group and DSNI’s arts and culture committee. In 2017, she served as co-chair for Boston Creates, a citywide cultural planning process, under Boston’s Chief of Arts and Culture. Prior to joining the Playhouse and DSNI & FCC team she worked as the Manager of Performance Programs in the Education Department at the Boch Performing Arts Center in Boston.  Alexander holds an artist certification from the City of Boston, as well as a certificate from Brioxy in the Arts & Philanthropy Executive Director Training program. She sits on the board of Circus Up and received her MFA from Brandeis University.

Sponsor

About the Director

Jackie Davis is an actor, directo,r and choreographer and intimacy director/advocate. She has worked in theater, film and television, primarily on the East Coast. Notable theater directing credits include The Motherf*ker with the Hat, Red Velvet, and Ruined. Notable intimacy direction includes The Inheritance and References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot. Notable choreography projects include The Wiz and Caroline or Change. Jackie is a member of the Resident Acting Company of Trinity Repertory Company and was last seen on stage as FLOTUS in this season’s production of POTUS. Other notable roles include Rose in Fences and Margaret in The Inheritance. Jackie is on staff in Trinity’s Education Department as a Teaching Artist/Master Instructor for TRC’s Young Actors Summer Institute (YASI) and part of the Movement Faculty for the Brown/Trinity MFA Program. Jackie is the founding artistic director of New Urban Theater Laboratory, where she produced and directed five seasons of new works in Massachusetts.

More about the playwright

Anna Deavere Smith is an actress, playwright, teacher, and author. She is credited with having created a new form of theater, combining the journalistic technique of interviewing her subjects with the art of interpreting their words through performance. Smith has created more than fifteen one-person shows based on hundreds of interviews. Plays authored by Smith include Notes from the Field, about the school to prison pipeline; Let Me Down Easy, about health care; House Arrest, about the U.S. presidency and the press; and Twilight: Los Angeles, about the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Twilight was recently named one of the best plays of the last twenty-five years by The New York Times. In 2018, HBO premiered the film version of Notes from the Field. PBS has broadcast Fires in the Mirror, Twilight, and Let Me Down Easy.

Notes From The Field

• Dates: Feb. 19-March 30
• Where: Portland Playhouse, 602 N.E. Prescott St., Portland
• Previews: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, February 19, 20, and 21. Tickets: $30
• Opening Night: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, February 22. Tickets: $25 – $59.95.
• Evening performances: Wednesdays through Saturdays throughout at 7:30 PM.
• Tickets: $25 – $59.95.
• Matinee performances: 2 p.m. Sundays throughout the run. Tickets: $25 – $59.95.
• Pay What You Wish Wednesday: 7:30 p.m. February 26. Tickets: (Pay What You Wish Starting at $5).
• BIPOC performances: 7:30 p.m. February 28 and March 15; 2 p.m. March 9. Tickets: (Pay What You Wish Starting at $5).
• Arts for All: Up to two tickets for each person with an Oregon Trail Card for $5 each at any performance. Subject to availability. Book ahead by calling the box office.
• Student Matinees: Noon Wednesdays and Thursdays, March 5-27. Contact Education Coordinator Voni Kengla for more info (voni@portlandplayhouse.org)
• Box Office: (503) 488-5822; hours 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Mondays-Fridays

Email: boxoffice@portlandplayhouse.org; Website: www.portlandplayhouse.org