The year was 1991 and the place was Brooklyn, New York.

A young African-American boy, Gavin Cato, was accidentally hit by a car driven by a rabbi. In retaliation, a mob of local African-Americans stabbed and killed Yankel Rosenbaum, a rabbinical student from Australia.

The result: one of the most memorable riots known to the streets of Crown Heights in Brooklyn.

As soon as Anna Deavere Smith heard about the riot, she packed her bags and headed to the scene of the crime.

When she got to Crown Heights, she interviewed politicians, gang members, religious leaders, victims and perpetrators who were involved in the riot. She then transcribed and edited the interviews into monologues to form the script for the historically invaluable production, “Fires in the Mirror.”

Smith debuted the production in 1993 at the Joseph Papp Public Theatre in New York, where she impersonated the characters of all 26 participants she interviewed. Since then, she has won the Drama Desk Award, she has been a runner-up for the 1993 Pulitzer Prize, and her performance has been broadcast on PBS as part of “The American President” series.

This weekend, the Iowa State Theater Department will perform Smith’s creation, which was adapted by director Shirley Dunlap for a 10-member cast.

“[The actors] tell what happened through the interviews,” said Dunlap, director of “Fires in the Mirror” and assistant professor of theatre. “People will know it was a real event and not make-believe.”

Dunlap has been known to do productions in ISU theater that deal with more academic, controversial issues. For example, in 1997 she directed “The Medea Myth,” a play centered around the lives of battered women.

Dunlap said she decided to direct “Fires in the Mirror” because student ideas and concepts about the world need to be challenged, and she thinks a university campus is the perfect place for these ideas to be introduced.

“I listen to people who are set in their ways and have never been out of Iowa,” Dunlap said. “When people come from the Midwest, some people know of no other culture but theirs. There’s life beyond that in community theater.”

When Dunlap adapted the play for 10 people, she wasn’t trying to make it so the characters could be played by people who shared the same background and personality.

In fact, some of the actors in the ISU production portray people who don’t even share their same race or gender.

“Men will be playing women’s roles, women will be playing men’s roles, black people will be playing white roles and white people will be playing black roles,” Dunlap said, “so we can get beyond who’s playing what and look at what [the characters] are actually doing.”

The first act is entirely devoted to helping the audience understand the different backgrounds of the participants in the riot.

After the backgrounds and demeanors of the characters are established, the second act will begin with the characters describing their different reactions to the Crown Heights riot.

Though only 10 actors will be performing, all 26 monologues will still be carried out. Dunlap said many of the actors in the play impersonate up to three different riot participants during the course of the show. This is possible because due to the lack of a storyline, there aren’t any main characters who need to appear continuously throughout the show.

Donnovan Tyler, junior in performing arts and psychology, said many of the characters who appear in the first act don’t even reappear in the second act.

Due to the wide scope of luminaries the cast was called to impersonate, the preparation process involved more than just memorizing lines.

Tyler, who plays the Reverend Al Sharpton (a respected minister in the community) and Carmel Cato (the father of victim Gavin Cato), said the cast members had to research the backgrounds of the different cultures before they even started rehearsing lines.

“Our first goal was to do research on the riot and the Jewish community,” Tyler said. “We had to know about people and how they react and how they are now.”

To help the audience better understand the characters’ sentiments during the riot, Dunlap has made “Fires in the Mirror” a “multimedia production.”

Actual footage of the riot will be shown during the course of the play, and music indicative of the African-American, Carribean-American and Hasidic Jewish cultures will be played throughout the production.

However, it’s the scenery itself that may be the most intriguing of the multimedia agenda.

Associate Professor of theatre Gregg Henry invited New York freelance designer Sarah Eckert to ISU to design the production. Eckert said the scenery is designed to help the audience visualize the place where the riot took place, while providing many symbolic and abstract references.

“I created a space for all the stories to be told in,” Eckert said. “It’s not a physical structure; it’s a space that’s not real.”

Before traveling to Iowa to design the show, Eckert went to Crown Heights to see for herself the atmosphere and feel of the place.

“It helped to see the spot [the riot] happened on,” Eckert said. “It was just like any other apartment building. The neighborhood had really diverse cultural groups who did not intermingle. There was a red cross painted on the sidewalk where Gavin Cato died.”

One of the main symbols for the scenery is a huge red brick wall in the middle of the stage. Dunlap said the brick wall symbolizes the fact that there is a “conflict of understanding” between the different cultures.

“The brick wall is emblematic of [the Crown Heights] community and similar communities,” Eckert said. “It’s a common element people will recognize.”

Because of the social themes, Dunlap said productions of this nature tend to make people question their beliefs and broaden their perspective. If “Fires in the Mirror” causes people to feel uncomfortable, then she said the play has done its job.

“If people feel discomfort, then we know there’s thinking and healing going on,” Dunlap said. “I’m hoping people will be able to see that understanding each other’s culture is important, and that things aren’t always the way they seem.”

“Fires in the Mirror” will be performed at Fisher Theater Feb. 19, 20, 25, 26 27 at 7:30 p.m. and Feb. 21 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $4.50 for students, $9 general admission, and can be purchased at TicketMaster outlets.