What everyone agreed on: Two cars collided. One, driven by a Hasidic Jew, veered off the road and critically injured two Black children, one of whom ultimately died. A crowd formed. Police arrived.

What no one agreed on: Anything else.

In the summer of 1991, Crown Heights, NY exploded into three days of violence fed by rumors and competing narratives formed from incomplete facts. In the chaos, some saw anti-Black police bias. Others saw violent anti-Semitism. But playwright Anna Deavere Smith heard the honest voices of a divided national narrative. Join us for this remarkable play that features the real words of more than 20 people, interviewed immediately after the events, speaking honestly, the way we do in private. Let’s listen.

Run time: 2 hours, plus a 15-minute intermission

Content Warning: Fires In The Mirror catalogs reflections of the Crown Heights Riots, a racially-charged conflict that engulfed the New York neighborhood in 1991. This play contains strong language and references to racism, slavery, lynching, antisemitism, sexual violence, and the Holocaust.

Phyllis Johnson (all roles) works in Theater, Film, TV, & Voice Over. Nominated for two NY Innovative Theatre Awards, Phyllis understudied A Naked Girl on the Appian Way/Doug Hughes, Director (Broadway). Recent TV projects include Zero Day (Netflix) starring Robert DeNiro, Equalizer (NBC), Uncoupled (Netflix), Law & Order: Season 22 (NBC), Blue Bloods (CBS), and Pose (FX). Phyllis is a voice actor and has leant her voice to 400+ film/TV episodes including Oscar winners and favorites such as Black Swan, American Gangster, and The Devil Wears Prada. She executive produced the award-winning film I’m Through with White Girls. Phyllis is a graduate of the David Geffen Yale School of Drama where she won the Fox Family Foundation Grant and The Oliver Thorndike Prize. 

FOR TICKETS AND INFORMATION: https://brtstage.org/shows/fires-in-the-mirror/ 

Today on the podcast: Director Rebecca Wright, Playwright AZ Espinoza and Performer/Composer Pax Ressler drop in to talk about the EgoPo production, The Drag by Mae West. This piece has been reworked by Thomas Choinacky and AZ Espinoza. On stage through February 9th. Here is my interview with Rebecca Wright for THE DRAG.