In a performance that gave weight to a Newsweek description that called her “the most exciting individual in American theatre,” actress, playwright, and author Anna Deavere Smith, University Professor at New York University Tisch School of the Arts and a Henry King Stanford Distinguished Professor in the Humanities at the University of Miami’s Center for the Humanities, presented “The Changing Landscape of Doctor-Patient Relationships” on Monday at Gusman Concert Hall.

Smith, founder and director of the Institute on the Arts and Civic Dialogue, is known for looking at controversial events from multiple points of view. Her theater and film work combines the journalistic technique of interviewing her subjects with the art of interpreting their words through her performance. She has held appointments at Stanford and at the Yale School of Medicine. Stanford University Medical School recently commissioned her to create a project on diversity in the medical school.

After her performance at UM’s Gusman Concert Hall, Smith signed copies of her latest book.