HBO Special with Anna Deaveare Smith ’71, ’93H Nominated for NAACP Image Award

February 10, 2015

An HBO special with actress, playwright, author, and educator Anna Deaveare Smith ’71, ’93H was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Children’s Program. “Anna Deaveare Smith: A YoungArts Masterclass,” which premiered on HBO in February 2014, showcases Deaveare Smith mentoring and performing creative exercises with six young actors and actresses. The special is part of the Emmy Award-nominated Masterclass series, which also has featured artists such as Plácido Domingo, Josh Groban, and Kathleen Turner.

Deaveare Smith was named a MacArthur Fellow in 1996, was given the National Humanities Medal from President Barack Obama in 2012, and received the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize in 2013. She also has previously been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and two Tony Awards, among other honors.

Doc McStuffins, an animated children’s series on the Disney Jr. channel, beat out Deavere Smith’s Masterclass special.

Also nominated for an Image Award was poet Jericho Brown, who will speak at Arcadia on Feb. 11 at 7 p.m. in the Castle. His new collection of poetry, The New Testament, received a nomination in the Outstanding Literary Work: Poetry category. The award went to Claudia Rankine’s Citizen: An American Lyric.  

The winners were announced during the 46th NAACP Image Awards, held at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in Pasadena, Calif. on Feb. 6.

alumnicollege of arts and sciencestheater artstheater