House Arrest: A Search For American Character In and Around the White House, Past and Present

In this verbatim play, pioneering theatre-maker Anna Deavere Smith explores civil rights, slavery, and the press through the lens of the American presidency. Equal parts performer and documentarian, Smith interviewed more than 400 people from politics, pop culture, history, and the media for House Arrest. The play is a tapestry of 43 of those people. Smith weaves the past and the present together, presenting her living subjects’ words verbatim from her interviews and using historical texts for others. The props, costuming, and set can be minimal or ornate, and the characters can be performed by a single actor or an ensemble. The gender and race of the actors do not need to match the characters they play. In the original production, Smith played all the roles.