By the Way, Meet Vera Stark at The Stagecrafters Theater

By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, a biting comedic satire from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Lynn Nottage, opens at The Stagecrafters on June 10th as a Philadelphia and regional premiere. Vera Stark, aspiring film actress, is determined and talented, but, in 1933 Hollywood, a woman of color is offered a string of roles as slaves, maids, cooks, and mammies. Public recognition of her contribution to the arts emerges only after several decades in the business, when she is invited to appear on a popular television talk show, and some years later, when she becomes the subject of a cinematic retrospective and academic symposium. This life story of a Black actress in America is bitter, but also wildly humorous a full-blown lampoon that takes on old-time Hollywood, latter-day pop culture, and private and public hypocrisies.