Long Beach Playhouse to Present 'MEET VERA STARK'

Lynn Nottage's most recent play, By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, takes a look at a serious topic in a lighthearted way. Through humor tinged with pathos, we see Vera Stark shapeshift to fit the expectations of the racial stereotypes of the 1930s.

"Nottage has created a singular representation of several African American actresses in the character of Vera Stark," said Andrew Vonderschmitt, Executive and Artistic Director for the Playhouse. "The screwball comedies of the 1930s are filled with scenes that include a Black maid, but she's never given a story. We don't know who she is beyond the tray she carries. Nottage asks the questions for us. Who were these actresses? What happened to them after the films?"

By the Way, Meet Vera Stark allows us in to her life. We get to observe the friendship between Vera and her white employer, an actress desperately seeking a role, which is warm, honest and equal. We also see the roles they adopt for the studio bosses, that of mistress and maid. We are invited to look at Vera's impoverished private life: the apartment she shares with two other African American actresses who are also struggling to make it in Hollywood.

Fluidly incorporating film and video elements into her writing for the first time, Nottage's comedy tells the story of Vera Stark, an African American maid and budding actress who has a tangled relationship with her boss, a white Hollywood star desperately grasping to hold onto her career.

Stirring audiences out of complacency by tackling racial stereotyping in the entertainment industry, highlights the paradox of black actors in 1930s Hollywood while jumping back and forward in time and location in this uniquely theatrical narrative. By the Way, Meet Vera Stark premiered in New York in 2011 and received subsequent productions at Los Angeles's Geffen Playhouse in fall 2012 and Chicago's Goodman Theatre and The Lyric Stage Company of Boston in spring 2013.

"In the play, we see Vera's past through the eyes of the present," said Vonderschmitt. "Hattie McDaniel, the actress who played Mammy in Gone With The Wind famously said she'd rather play a maid than be one. By the Way, Meet Vera Stark shows us the depth and truth of McDaniel's observation on race and opportunity in the 1930s."

SPECIAL EVENTS FOR THIS PLAY:

• Pay what you can Thursday April 9 - community can see this production for whatever they can afford
• Two for One Preview Friday April 10 - Tickets are $12.00
• Opening Night Champagne Reception with cast on April 11- Tickets are $27.00

Adults are $24.00, seniors $21.00, and Students $14.00.

Tickets are available at www.lbplayhouse.org, or by calling 562-494-1014, option 1.

To request an interview with the director, cast members or reserve your media tickets to this performance, please send an email to: pr@lbplayhouse.org.

Long Beach Playhouse is located at 5021 E. Anaheim St., Long Beach, CA, 90804, right across from the Long Beach Recreation golf course. The Playhouse is community-supported theatre with programs and events that cut across age, gender, ethnic, and cultural boundaries.

Performances are 8 p.m. Friday, and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. The box office is open Wednesday-Saturday from 3:00-8:00 pm and Sundays from 1:00-2:00 pm on scheduled matinees.

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