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Transcript/ScriptArena Stage Director - Anisimova
HEAD: From Alaska to Washington DC – Theatre Director Molly Smith Has Seen It All
PUBLISHED AT: 01/21/2022 AT 9:25AM
BYLINE: Liliya Anisimova
CONTRIBUTOR:
DATELINE: Washington
VIDEOGRAPHER: Yuriy Zakrevskiy
VIDEO SOURCE (S): VOA + News Agencies
PLATFORMS: TV only
COPY EDITORS: KE(1st), BR
TRT: 3:24
VID APPROVED BY: KE
TYPE: TVPKG
UPDATE:))
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[[Molly Smith, who is the artistic director of the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., has been highlighting American plays for over 20 years. Liliya Anisimova has her story, narrated by Anna Rice.]]
((NARRATION))
For director Molly Smith,
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working in the theater is in her blood – fulfilling a career that her grandmother never had.
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((Molly Smith, Arena Stage))
“My grandmother was a wonderful actor as a young person, and at that time, if you went into theatre, you were basically thought of as a prostitute, or lady of the night. // She really wanted to be an actress, she wanted to be in New York, and yet she subjugated that in herself and married quite young. // For me, I thought that I was finishing up a part of my grandmother’s life, because she was so passionate about the theatre.”
((NARRATION))
Because Molly’s mother also was enchanted with theatre, Smith was a passionate theatre-goer growing up.
((Molly Smith, Arena Stage))
“I saw my first show very, very young – I was probably six or seven years old when I saw a production of Camelot with Robert Goulet in Yakima, Washington. And I can remember everything! I can remember the seat I sat in in the balcony, I can remember leaning forward into the light that was emanating from the stage – and I was hooked!”
((NARRATION))
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After college, Smith moved to Alaska and only a year later – in 1979 –
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...she founded the Perseverance Theatre.
((Molly Smith, Arena Stage))
“My former husband and I dragged 50 used theater seats across the country because obviously it was a big passion for me to start a theatre. And I spent seven years of my life figuring it out.”
((NARRATION))
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In 1998, Smith came to work at Washington’s renowned Arena stage as artistic director. Founded in 1950, the theatre is visited by some 300,000 people a year.
Smith does not stage
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European classics, but instead focuses on American plays and playwrights.
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((NATS)) ((Part of a performance))
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((Molly Smith, Arena Stage))
“There is a huge range of diversity in the United States – in terms of voices, types of people who are writing, in terms of race, in terms of ethnicity, in terms of sexuality…”
((NARRATION))
But apart from changing the repertoire and focus of Arena Stage, Smith also tried to change attitudes
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toward women directors. While there has been some change, she believes more progress is needed.
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((Molly Smith, Arena Stage))
“When I first came here to Arena 24 years ago, of the large theatres in the United States, there were probably four or five of us, women. There are more now. But I face misogyny almost every day in one form or another – and I’ve been doing this a long time.”
((NARRATION))
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In the two and a half decades of her work at the Arena Stage, Molly and her team
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staged over 100 performances, nine of which made their way to New York.
((For Liliya Anisimova in Washington,
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((Mandatory courtesy: Arena Stage))
Anna Rice, VOA News))
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NewsML Media TopicsArts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
NetworkVOA
Embargo DateJanuary 21, 2022 21:11 EST
Brand / Language ServiceUS Agency for Global Media