The production kicks off Smith’s Signature residency; her “Twilight: Los Angeles 1992,” on the riots there, will be revived later in its season.

In a lively interview at the theater last week, Smith and Washington talked about what a male actor brings to the play, his appreciation for the fluidity of her characters and what the play still has to teach us about race and American identity. An edited version of the conversation follows.

Anna, I read an interview in which you described being disappointed when a man came up to you after an early performance and told you, “I wish that a male actor had been cast.” How did that impact how you approached this revival?

ANNA DEAVERE SMITH This was when it was at the Public Theater. This brother came over and said: “You know, I’m just curious. Didn’t you meet any strong, black man that you wanted to include?” I was like: “Strong black men? Well, how about Mr. Cato? How about Conrad Muhammad, whether you agree with him or not. You can’t say he’s not strong. How about Al Sharpton?” I thought, “Oh, for him, if he doesn’t see the black male body, he’s not seeing himself.” And so I don’t count either. There is this feeling that only a black man could be a black man. That’s not philosophically where I live.

When we went looking for an individual who was going to play this part, everyone assumed it was going to be a woman. But I wanted to see if it makes a difference to have the presence of a black male body onstage. So I campaigned for them to see men as well as women in casting.

Michael, you play so many characters — a Haitian teenage girl, an anonymous Lubavitcher woman, Angela Davis, and black and Jewish adolescent boys. Were you at all concerned with taking on so many different types at once?

MICHAEL BENJAMIN WASHINGTON Not at all. I grew up doing competitive speech and debate. “Fires in the Mirror” was a piece that was run on the circuit of our high school competitions. It was part of our training to become as fluid as possible, to play men and women and different races and ethnicities and religions and sexual orientations. So when I got this part, it was like a return home.