Jenni Barber & Jessica Frances Dukes Lead Signature's BY THE WAY, MEET VERA STARK

The cast and creative team have been announced for the Signature Theatre production of By the Way, Meet Vera Stark by two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner and Residency 1 playwright Lynn Nottage and directed by Obie Award-winner Kamilah Forbes. The production runs January 29, 2019 to March 3, 2019 with a February 19, 2019 opening night in The Irene Diamond Stage at The Pershing Square Signature Center (480 West 42nd Street between 9th and 10th Avenues).

Tickets, priced at $35 thanks to the Signature Ticket Initiative, are on sale now for the production. To purchase tickets for all Signature Productions, call Ticket Services at 212-244-7529 (Tues. - Sun., 11am - 6pm) or visit www.SignatureTheatre.org.

The cast of By the Way, Meet Vera Stark includes Jenni Barber (Sunday in the Park with George) as Gloria, Jessica Frances Dukes (Yellowman) as Vera, Tony Award nominee Manoel Felciano (Amélie, Sweeney Todd) as Max/Peter, Warner Miller (Netflix's "Luke Cage") as Leroy/Herb, Carra Patterson (Jitney) as Anna Mae/Afua, Heather Alicia Simms (Signature's Fabulation, or The Re-Education of Undine) as Lottie/Carmen and David Turner (The Boys in the Band) as Brad/Slavick.

The creative team includes Clint Ramos (Scenic Design), Dede M. Ayite (Costume Design), Matt Frey (Lighting Design), Mikaal Sulaiman (Sound Design), Katherine Freer (Projection Design) and Daniel Kluger (Composition). The Production Stage Manager isLaura Wilson and Casting is by Caparelliotis Casting.

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.

All tickets for the initial run of the production are $35 as part of the Signature Ticket Initiative: A Generation of Access. For more information, please visit www.SignatureTheatre.org.

The groundbreaking Signature Ticket Initiative: A Generation of Access is a program that guarantees affordable tickets to every Signature production through 2031. Serving as a model for theatres and performing arts organizations across the country, the Initiative was founded in 2005 and is made possible by lead partner The Pershing Square Foundation with additional support provided by the Jerome L. Greene Foundation, the Howard Gilman Foundation, Margot Adams, The SHS Foundation, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Unlikely Collaborators, Consolidated Edison Company of New York, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and City Council Speaker Corey Johnson.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / WM Photos