It’s the Golden Age of Hollywood, and aspiring starlet Vera Stark works as a maid to Gloria Mitchell, an aging star grasping at her fading career. Worlds collide when Vera lands a trailblazing role in an antebellum epic starring…her boss. While Vera’s portrayal of a slave turns out to be groundbreaking, decades later scholars and film buffs still grapple with the actress’ legacy in Hollywood and the impact that race had on her controversial career. Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Lynn Nottage’s fast-paced, sly satire, directed by Kamilah Forbes, will take you on a seventy-year journey through Vera’s life and the cultural climate that originally shaped her and continues today.
REVIEWS
"A welcome reminder that Nottage has a tricky pinball brain, capable of whanging through the decades and lighting us up with humor and rage." -- Time Out New York
"Jessica Frances Dukes keeps the center of the show sharp and shining. She’s wily and fierce, and undergoes a striking total transformation." -- New York Magazine
BIO
Lynn Nottage is the author of Intimate Apparel, which was produced in New York at Roundabout Theatre Company after its world-premiere production at Center Stage and South Coast Repertory. The play received numerous awards, including the 2004 New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play, the Outer Critics Circle Best Play award, the John Gassner Award, the American Theatre Critics/Steinberg 2004 New Play Award and the 2004 Francesca Primus Award, and it has gone on to receive dozens of productions around the country. Her next play, Fabulation, or the Education of Undine (Obie Award) directed by Kate Whoriskey, was first produced by Playwrights Horizons and recently received a highly acclaimed production at the Tricycle Theatre in London. Both plays are published in an anthology by Theatre Communications Group (TCG). Another anthology of her plays, Crumbs From the Table of Joy and Other Plays was published by TCG, and includes Crumbs From the Table of Joy; Las Meninas; Mud, River, Stone; Por’Knockers and Poof! Her plays have been produced and developed at theaters throughout the country, including Alliance Theatre, Second Stage Theatre, the Vineyard Theatre, Freedom Theatre, Crossroads Theatre Company, Intiman Theatre, the Oregon Skahespeare Festival, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Yale Reportory Theatre and the Sundance Institute Theatre Lab, among many others. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the prestigious 2004 PEN/Laura Pels Award for literary excellence and the MacArthur “Genius” Award, as well as fellowships from Manhattan Theatre Club, New Dramatists and the New York Foundation for the Arts, where she is a member of the Artists Advisory Board.
REVIEWS
"Critic’s Pick! It is such a good show! So clever, so playful, so keen to shapeshift and timeslip and whiz through half a dozen separate genres." -- The New York Times
"A welcome reminder that Nottage has a tricky pinball brain, capable of whanging through the decades and lighting us up with humor and rage." -- Time Out New York
"Jessica Frances Dukes keeps the center of the show sharp and shining. She’s wily and fierce, and undergoes a striking total transformation." -- New York Magazine
[P] Theatre Communications Group / October 15, 2013
0.4" H x 8.4" L x 5.3" W (0.3 lbs) 94 pages