GETTING REAL

Re “Reality Bites” (by Jan Breslauer, July 28):

Nonfiction drama is exciting when in the hands of a capable novelist, playwright or scriptwriter. While Anna Deavere Smith’s acting in “Twilight: Los Angeles 1992” was impressive (except for male characters), her script lacked the qualities of fine playwriting--reality perceived imbued with insights, polished and memorable dialogue shaped from mundane speech, a cohesive theme, a strong sense of place, etc.

Instead of transforming L.A.’s civil unrest into an artistic work within the grasp of anyone unfamiliar with our city, Smith reduced her unoriginal material to an ill-formed, sophisticated agitprop that absolved the largest segment of Southern California voters of responsibility for the social neglect that fostered the tensions that erupted following the verdict in the Rodney King beating case.

Smith may have succeeded as an actress, but she failed as a playwright--unlike poet-actor Roger Guenveur Smith, whose tight focus and lancing dialogue not only eerily evoked the spirit of Huey P. Newton but illuminated the ironies of his ignoble death.

WANDA COLEMAN

Los Angeles

*

When a print journalist starts throwing around “craze,” “perpetrator,” “hottest trend,” “the rage” and “user-friendly” to describe theater journalism, it looks like a bad case of medium envy.

The cure is a shot of imagination. How about a theatrical production of an entire Sunday issue of The Times? On a dozen stages: one for each part of the paper. The journalists could act out their articles; the Op-Edders could pontificate onstage before a live audience; Robert Hilburn could rap his pop reviews; and letter writers would get little cameos.

RICHARD GLEAVES

San Diego