January LaVoy Conjures 26 Personalities in ‘Fires in the Mirror’
Fires in the Mirror, in which LaVoy personifies 26 characters, a diverse mix of residents in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights.LaVoy performs 29 distinct monologues, all drawn from interviews playwright Anna Deavere Smith conducted in 1991. The documentary play is a tour-de-force solo turn for LaVoy, an Atlanta-based performer best known for playing Noelle Ortiz-Stubbs on ABC’s One Life to Live.“I’ve run a few marathons,” LaVoy says, “and I think of this show as a 90-minute race.”It is an impressive feat of endurance and deftness, especially given how quickly and seamlessly LaVoy shifts from character to character, with only the slightest of changes in costume or appearance or lighting.Theatergoers can take away any number of insights about Black/Jewish relations from the show, but LaVoy suggests seeing Fires in the Mirror for another reason, as well.“I don’t think we are very good at listening right now,” LaVoy says.