Media Archive

The historical events portrayed in the play, from March 1991 to December 1993.

“I think that Anna’s really trying to get you, the audience, and all of us in the community to deeply listen to these issues, to not just bite them off and see it as black and white, or to actually really breathe and sit with everyone’s worldview to try to deeply understand what’s going on.”

“I think we have a chance, given the larger conversation in the world and the political conversation in the world right now, to put the play against a modern background and see if there are new things to learn.”

“It feels like you’re sitting at a café with this person, right next to them, who’s from a very different background from you,” says Tiffany Rachelle Stewart. “I think that’s what’s so special about ‘Twilight: Los Angeles’ and what makes it so relevant today.”

As she set about revising “Twilight” for a cast of five…Smith was struck by how vividly the voices of the Los Angeles residents she interviewed all those years ago still leap off its pages. “Every single person certainly deserved their place in a drama,” she remarks.

A reflection on Twilight by Harvard Professor Ju Yon Kim, who chairs the college’s Theater, Dance & Media concentration.

Twilight’s prescience lies in its power to capture that past moment of social strife and conflict in Los Angeles while also conveying revelations about our current troubling era.

In the 30 years since Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 made its world premiere, Anna Deavere Smith’s landmark documentary performances have borne witness to communities in crisis across the US and internationally.