Previews: H*TLER'S TASTERS at ThinkTank Theatre

On stage April 10–13 is the ThinkTank Theatre and Tampa Fringe co‑production of H*tler’s Tasters, performed inside the Tampa Fringe Blackbox Theatre in Ybor. The play drops four teenage girls into a terrifying historical reality. Three times a day, every day, a group of young women had the opportunity to die for their country. They were Adolf Hitler’s food tasters. As they waited to see if they would live through another meal, they gossiped, dreamed, questioned, danced, and tried to hold on to the ordinary rhythms of girlhood. Winner of the 2017 Susan Glaspell Award and a 2019 Edinburgh Fringe sell‑out, the play explores how girls navigate sexuality, patriotism, and poison against the backdrop of war.

Georgios Tsambis makes his ThinkTank directing debut with this production. “I was drawn to Tasters because after reading it, I wanted to be in it! haha! How many plays are about little girls trying to survive?” he said. “Witnessing these girls fight for their lives contrasted by the simple desire to just be girls- that is the drama.”

Tsambis leans into the script’s blend of humor and dread. “Oftentimes at rehearsals I feel like I am watching the girls at a sleepover. They will giggle and I will giggle!” he said. “We use Mean Girls vocabulary to tell what is so much more than a Mean Girls story.”

His direction centers on the idea that the characters are still teenagers despite the danger surrounding them. “If the action is ‘to be a girl’ or ‘to have fun’ then the obstacle is war,” he said. “War is the obstacle here and as the director I am a zealous advocate for trying to get my girls what they want.”

The black box setting amplifies that tension.

“I have emphasized at almost every rehearsal that ‘there is nowhere to hide,’” Tsambis said. “With the audience inches in front of them on three sides, everything the actors do can be seen.”

The cast reflects that same emotional duality.

Madalyn Macko, who plays Hilda, agreed. “It is nearly like they are there communing at the table with us.”

She spoke about the bond among the performers. “Relying on shared experiences that transcend any age gap we have reminded us of how beautifully complex girlhood is.”  

She also confronted the challenge of portraying a girl shaped by ideology. “Having all the insights of a woman in the present day made it challenging to truthfully honor Hilda’s willingness to not only accept, but preach nazi ideology,” she said. “It has been a humbling experience and only caused me to look deeper at my own privileges this very moment.”

YAE member Yara Perez (Margot) prepared by holding both sides of the character’s world at once. “Even in moments where we are just having normal girl talk we have to be careful of what we say and who we talk about because we never know who’s listening to us,” she said, and noted the challenge of tone. “The most challenging part was trusting that the humor would land in the way that we want without taking away the tension of the show.”

For Ava Zientek (Liesel), the emotional shifts are constant. “The constant back and forth within every moment is the most challenging because we are constantly switching into different and extreme emotions,” she said. “The small size makes it more realistic, like we're actually living through these moments together versus performing them for an audience.”

Erin Gordon (Anna) found that the space reshaped her performance. “There is genuinely no place to hide in the background when you're in such a small show in an intimate setting,” she said.

As Gordon dug deeper into her character, she discovered more than she expected. “Despite these ‘ditzy’ moments, she is really a curious and well-meaning person, who just happens to struggle with knowing when to stop talking.”

Across the ensemble, the intergenerational collaboration has become a defining strength. As Zientek put it, “We were able to build a trust that made the process more fun and playful especially when we're dancing on tables or taking selfies.”

Tsambis believes the play’s blend of eras invites audiences to consider the persistence of complacency. “The story isn’t ancient history,” he said. “It could happen in 2016, 2026 or 2036.”