War Through the Artist's Eyes with Stephen Wadsworth and Tobias Wolff speaking at the 2007 Aspen Ideas Festival. Anna Deavere Smith moderates.
Some of the most inspired and provocative thinkers, writers, artists, business people, teachers and other leaders drawn from myriad fields and from across the country and around the world all gathered in a single place - to teach, speak, lead, question, and answer at the 2006 Aspen Ideas Festival. Throughout the week, they all interacted with an audience of thoughtful people who stepped back from their day-to-day routines to delve deeply into a world of ideas, thought, and discussion.
Bio
Anna Deavere Smith
Anna Deavere Smith is an actor, playwright, teacher, and author. Known for her distinct brand of documentary-theater, she wrote and performed Fires in the Mirror: Crown Heights, Brooklyn and Other Identities which was the runner-up for the 1993 Pulitzer Prize and earned her an Obie and Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 which received two Tony Award nominations, an Obie, and numerous other awards.
Currently a professor at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Smith was the Ford Foundation's first artist-in-residence as well as a MacArthur Fellow. As of July 2009 she is the artist in residence with the Center for American Progress. Smith is also the founder of the Institute on the Arts and Civic Dialogue and has received honorary degrees from several universities. In 2006, Smith was the first Aspen Institute Harman-Eisner Artist-in-Residence. She also received the 2008 Matrix Award from the New York Women in Communications, Inc. and a Fellow Award in Theater Arts from United States Artists in 2009.
Stephen Wadsworth
Stephen Wadsworth is a stage director, writer, translator, and teacher, as well as director of Opera Studies at The Julliard School, Master Teacher in the Lindemann Young Artists Development Program at the Metropolitan Opera, and a 2007 Aspen Institute Harman-Eisner Artist-in-Residence. He has directed major works at theaters and opera houses all over the world. His credits include plays at La Jolla Playhouse, the McCarter Theatre, the Mark Taper Forum, Berkeley Rep, Seattle Rep, the Huntington Theatre, and Dallas Theatre Centre. His work in opera encompasses directing at such venues as La Scala, Vienna State Opera, Royal Opera Covent Garden, the Edinburgh Festival, New York City Opera, Los Angeles Opera, and Seattle Opera, where he directed many performances, including his acclaimed version of Wagner’s Ring cycle. This year he will direct the first co-production of Seattle Opera and the Metropolitan Opera. A master of the classical theatre repertoire, he has also translated and adapted many works for the stage.
Tobias Wolff
Tobias Wolff is the author of numerous books, including the novel "Old School," parts of which originally appeared in The New Yorker; a novella, "The Barracks Thief," which won a PEN/Faulkner Award; four short-story collections; and two memoirs, "This Boy's Life" and "In Pharaoh's Army: Memories of the Lost War." His most recent book, "Our Story Begins: New and Selected Stories," contains several stories that originally appeared in the magazine.