Douglas Morrisson Theatre to Open 2015-16 Season with BY THE WAY, MEET VERA STARK

The Douglas Morrisson Theatre 2015-2016 Revelations Season kicks off with the regional premiere of Lynn Nottage's biting satire about racial stereotyping in Hollywood: BY THE WAY, MEET VERA STARK. By The Way, Meet Vera Stark will have 15 performances, including one preview, August 27 through September 20, 2015, at the Douglas Morrisson Theatre, 22311 N. Third St. in Hayward, CA. Tickets are $10-$29, and are available through the Box Office at (510) 881-6777 or online at www.dmtonline.org.

DMT's production of By The Way, Meet Vera Stark is directed by Dawn Monique Williams and features an outstanding ensemble of Bay Area actors: Kelly Strickland as Vera Stark, Alicia von Kugelgen as Gloria, Shani Harris-Bagwell as Lottie, Jia Taylor as Anna Mae, Khary Moye as Leroy, Evan Sokol as Slasvick, and Gene Mocsy as Maxmillian.

"A satisfying screwball comedy in which Nottage uses stereotypes to expose them, tapping into a current of rueful emotion beneath the surface." -Vogue

Riffing off 1930s screwball comedy films, Pulitzer Prize-winning (Ruined) playwright Lynn Nottage tackles and skewers the all-too-topical theme of racial stereotyping in Hollywood. By The Way, Meet Vera Starktakes the audience on a seventy-year journey through the life of Vera Stark. It's 1933 and Vera, a budding African-American actress is working as a lady's maid for a white Hollywood self-dramatizing starlet known as "America's little sweetie pie." When they're both cast in the same Southern epic, ("The Belle of New Orleans"), Vera's career is launched and we become witness to her controversial legacy in front of and behind the cameras.

Artistic Director Susan E. Evans says, "I am tremendously excited to open our DMT 2016-2016 Season with By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, a very funny, very clever and very timely comedy. The fictional Vera is one of those talented actresses we've all seen in 1930s movies relegated almost entirely to playing the roles of maids, cooks or slaves. This play examines with humor and poignancy the choices she makes over many decades as she navigates the world of Hollywood."

By the Way, Meet Vera Stark was originally produced by Second Stage Theatre Off Broadway in May 2011, directed by Jo Bonney; it received its West Coast premiere at the Geffen Playhouse in September 2012, also directed by Ms. Bonney.

The Douglas Morrisson Theatre creative team for By the Way, Meet Vera Stark is comprised of designers with credits from numerous Bay Area theatres and beyond including Andrea Bechert (scenic designer), Cliff Caruthers (sound designer), Mike Oesch (lighting designer) and Courtney Flores (costume designer).

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