Dael Orlandersmith
Orlandersmith, born Donna Dael Theresa Orlander Smith Brown in 1959, in New York City's East Harlem.But she is a good mimic, and in switching from female to male, from Puerto Rican to Italian or Irish, from youth to elderly, she only rarely slips from characterization into caricature.[3] Part of her award-winning Beauty's Daughter's program can be heard as a segment of a September 1996 taping of radio show This American Life; in this segment, Orlandersmith performs "When You Talk About Music", in which she portrays a 31-year-old Italian male who meets a black woman at a mutual friend's wedding and finds how much he misses musical expression.Misha Berson, reviewing for The Seattle Times wrote: "An imposing, fervent performer-writer, Orlandersmith clearly knows this terrain by heart.[6] The play was first produced at the McCarter Theatre, Princeton, New Jersey on February 28, 1998, performed by Orlandersmith and directed and conceived by Peter Askin.Directed by Gordon Edelstein, the cast featured Orlandersmith (Mira), Roxanna Hope (Desiree), Michael Laurence (Loman), and Matthew Schechter (Luka).The CurtainUp reviewer wrote: "...it is written in a beautifully composed, essentially lyrical, narrative-driven style... 'Horsedreams' continues a recurring theme that runs through 'Yellowman', as well as other Orlandersmith's plays: how children are undone by the sins of their parents...