Prompt 11: Fires in the Mirror

By excluding the first section of the play, out company would be disregarding the intentions of the playwright, Anna Deavere Smith. She made a specific choice when she included monologue that did not necessarily speak about the Crown Heights Riots. Smith wanted to provide a general understanding of the types of people involved in the incident. Specifically when a play is telling the story of an event that occurred in the real world and not just the world of the play, an audience automatically views the story with a cultural bias that can hinder an overall understanding of the occurrence. Smith created a sequence of monologues that presented a more intimate view of people from both sides of the conflict before the story of the Riots is told. She chooses to do this so that the audience can keep an open mind and have a more objective view of the accounts told.

 If we were to take away the first section no one would really understand the passion that these people have about their own respective cultures or why they refuse to listen to the other side. The first section brings perspective so that the story of the Riots can begin in a place where the two sides are on a relatively level playing field in the minds of the audience members. Without the first section of monologues, they would forget that even in one side of a conflict, everyone has their own beliefs and thoughts about it.