Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992

Content Warning: This section of the guide contains discussion of racism, graphic violence, and death.

Gather initial thoughts and broad opinions about the book.

1. Smith interviews a wide range of individuals from different racial backgrounds, socioeconomic classes, and perspectives. How did this multivocal approach impact your understanding of the LA riots? Which voices or perspectives most significantly shifted your view of these events?

2. Twilight uses verbatim interview transcripts arranged as poetry and performance. How did this theatrical form affect your response to the material compared to other works about racial tension, such as Spike Lee’s film Do the Right Thing or Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Between the World and Me?

3. The concept of “twilight” serves as both a metaphor and a character’s name in the play. What significance did you find in this image of in-between time, and how does it frame your overall impression of the work?

Encourage readers to connect the book’s themes and characters with their personal experiences.

1. Many characters describe moments when their perception of US society fundamentally changed, such as Angela King’s reflections on her nephew or Reginald Denny’s concept of his “happy room” after being attacked. When have you experienced a moment that forced you to reconsider your understanding of race relations?

2. The play highlights tensions between different communities, particularly Black Americans and Korean Americans. Have you witnessed similar intercultural tensions in your own community, and what insights from the play might help address such divides?

3. Several witnesses describe supernatural premonitions or cosmic signs surrounding the riots, such as Theresa Allison’s “Lightning but No Rain” (32-40) and Josie Morales’s dreams. How do you personally make meaning of traumatic national events? Do you find yourself looking for signs or patterns to understand them?

4. Judith Tur admits in “War Zone” that “I hate to be angry—and what’s happening, the white people are getting so angry now that they’re going back fifty years instead of pushing ahead” (98). When have you seen fear or anger in response to social change in your own life or community? How did you respond?

5. Jason Sanford explores the varying definitions of “they” in his testimony, noting how the specific outsider group changes based on one’s environment. When have you caught yourself using “they” language, and what effect did it have on your thinking or actions?

6. Maxine Waters speaks of “young men who have been dropped off of America’s agenda” (160). Are there groups in your community that you feel have been similarly “dropped” from consideration? How might you use your own position to amplify such voices?

Examine the book’s relevance to societal issues, historical events, or cultural themes.

1. Smith’s play was created in 1994, just two years after the events it depicts. How do you think audiences’ reception of this work might differ today versus when it premiered? What aspects of the racial dynamics portrayed feel changed or unchanged in the US today?

2. Throughout the play, several characters reference the 1965 Watts riots in Los Angeles and failed promises of reform through the McCone and Kerner Commissions. Looking at more recent events, like the protests following George Floyd’s death, what patterns or cycles do you observe in the way the US confronts racial injustice?

3. Korean American voices feature prominently in the play, including Mrs. Young-Soon Han, who asks, “Where do I finda justice?” (246). How does the play complicate the traditional Black/white binary of US racial discourse? What insights does it offer for our increasingly multiracial society?

Dive into the book’s structure, characters, themes, and symbolism.

1. Smith’s documentary theater style in Twilight builds on methods she developed in her earlier work Fires in the Mirror, which examined the 1991 Crown Heights riots. How do Smith’s theatrical techniques help audiences process complex social conflicts differently than traditional journalism or historical accounts?

2. Smith organizes the play into five acts with distinct thematic functions. How does this structure guide the audience’s emotional and intellectual journey through the material? How would the impact differ if Smith had arranged the voices chronologically instead?

3. The play uses several recurring motifs, including twilight, cosmic forces, and guns. How do these motifs develop throughout the play? How do they illuminate the central themes?

4. Though Rodney King is central to the events, we never hear his voice in the play directly. Instead, his aunt Angela King speaks for him in “Carmen.” What is the significance of this narrative choice, and how does it reflect broader themes of representation and voice in the work?

5. In “Twilight #1,” literary critic Homi Bhabha suggests that “twilight challenges us to be aware of how we are projecting onto the event itself. We are part of producing the event” (233). How does this metatheatrical element—in which the play acknowledges being a play—work with Smith’s documentary approach?

6. Smith deliberately juxtaposes contrasting voices, such as Paul Parker’s pride in the riots directly following Daryl Gates’s self-pitying justifications. Identify another set of contrasting voices in the play. How does this pairing create meaning beyond what either voice communicates alone?

Encourage imaginative and creative connections to the book.

1. Smith intended this play to be performed as a one-person show, with her embodying each character. If you were directing a new production of Twilight, would you maintain this approach or cast multiple actors? What would either choice communicate about the play’s themes?

2. Imagine you are creating your own documentary theater piece about a significant recent event in your community. Which voices would you prioritize interviewing, and how would you structure their testimonies to create a meaningful narrative?

3. In the closing act, Twilight Bey speaks of stepping out of his safe “limbo” state to engage with humanity more broadly. Write a brief monologue from the perspective of one of the play’s characters 10 years after the riots, reflecting on what has changed or remained the same.

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