Style, sass and spotlights — it’s the Golden Age of Hollywood, and the indomitable Vera Stark is ready to make her mark in Tinseltown!
As a housemaid to the silver screen’s biggest, blondest bombshell, Vera’s perfectly poised to seize the chance for her breakout role. But for African-Americans in the 1930s, big-screen dreams and real life are a messy combination...
Chronicling Vera’s rise to silver screen glory and her subsequent tumble into obscurity, By The Way, Meet Vera Stark is a barbed-wire screwball take on the oft-overlooked legacy of African-American actresses and the injustices they faced at the hands of Hollywood executives. Playwright Lynn Nottage is the only woman to have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama twice. While her body of work ranges from searing drama to uproarious comedy, Nottage’s dedication to placing unsung stories in the spotlight shines through all her work. ATC proudly presents the New Zealand premiere of By The Way, Meet Vera Stark.
"So clever, so playful, so keen to shapeshift and timeslip and whiz through half a dozen separate genres." - The New York Times
"A dazzling comedy about racial identity in Hollywood." - New York Post