A THICK DESCRIPTION OF HARRY SMITH, a proto-psychedelic medicine show, takes a wild ride through the life, work and times of filmmaker, musicologist, painter, anthropologist, collector, occultist and fabulist, Harry Everett Smith. Best known for editing the seminal Anthology of American Folk Music, Smith's peculiar life is an emblem of American bohemian life in the 20th Century. Conceived as a Prairie Home Companion style variety show, Thick Description uses reworked folk songs, radio vignettes of real, speculative and imagined episodes of Harry Smith's life, Foley work, and a wide variety of storytelling styles to reveal an alternative conception of American identity. 

Commissioned by Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Tony Taccone, Artistic Director

• 5 Men, 2 Women

PRODUCTION HISTORY

University Production

University of Washington School of Theatre, January 2024

Workshop Production

P73 at The Culture Project, New York City, 2012

Developmental Workshops & Readings

New Dramatists, 2012 & 2009; Collaboraction and Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, 2011; The Watermill Center, 2011

PRESS

"When I sat down to write this article, my first thought wasn't, ‘How do I sum up the plot of this play,’ or, ‘How do I describe its ambiance?’ To feel so deeply affected by a work of art, to feel as if it changed you and the way you see the world, means that you just want to grab people by the shoulders and tell them to see it. Most of what is running through my mind as I write this article was, ‘How can I express to the people who made this production possible how much I am in awe of what they have managed to do?’”

-Priya Devanesan, The Daily, University of Washington 

https://vimeo.com/22734195

Watch Videos from 2013 New Dramatists Workshop

Click to purchase.