Actress and playwright Anna Deavere Smith will bring her one-woman show, “Snapshots: Portrait of a World in Transition,” to Lawrence this week as part of Kansas University’s Hall Center for the Humanities Lecture Series.

The free performance is slated for 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Lied Center, 1600 Stewart Drive.

Anna Deavere Smith, Snapshots: Portraits of a World in Transition will be May 14 at the Lied Center

Smith’s solo presentations blur the lines between theater and journalism, using text from real-life encounters to reenact subjects such as a Korean shopkeeper, a bull-rider, a female convict and author Studs Terkel.

Smith, who also teaches law and performance studies at New York University and currently serves as the artist-in-residence at the Center for American Progress, has written more than 15 one-person shows.

Her works, which often focus on social issues, have garnered several honors, including a Drama Desk award and two Tony nominations for “Twilight: Los Angeles 1992.”

As an actress, Smith has appeared on television programs such as “The West Wing” and “Nurse Jackie” as well as in films like “The American President,” “Rachel Getting Married” and “Philadelphia.”

For more information, call the Lied Center at 864-4798 or visit www.lied.ku.edu.