Anna Deavere Smith's Acclaimed Solo Play Notes From the Field to Be Adapted for HBO

Anna Deavere Smith's documentary solo play Notes From the Field, depicting the personal accounts of students, parents, teachers and administrators caught in America’s school-to-prison pipeline, will be adapted as a TV film for HBO. Smith will craft the adaptation from a performance of the play that was filmed; Kristi Zea will serve as director. Notes From the Field is set to debut on February 24, 2018.

"I was thrilled to have a chance to film the play for HBO," Smith told Broadway.com in an exclusive statement. "The goal of the project has always been to get the word out that there are children in this country who just don’t get a chance to be productive. It’s not good for the country. Lack of education becomes a security problem. I have had a chance to work with amazing theater artists from day one. Bringing it to film also gave me a chance to work with some of the best film artists of my generation."

Drawn from more than 200 interviews with people living and working within a challenged system and featuring Smith's multifaceted portrayals of real-life characters, the Notes From the Field film will feature Smith playing all 19 roles, ranging from Congressman John Lewis; social activist James Baldwin; Kevin Moore, a deli worker in Baltimore who videotaped police officers dragging Freddie Gray into a police transport van and Bree Newsome, an activist who was arrested for removing the confederate flag from the South Carolina statehouse grounds.

The play Notes From the Field, directed by Leonard Foglia, ran from October 15 through December 18, 2016 at the Tony Kiser Theatre at off-Broadway's Second Stage. Look back at Smith and her collaborators introducing the show below.