By the Way, Meet Vera Stark

A new comedy by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author ofRuined. "Nottage is one of our finest playwrights, a smart, empathetic and daring storyteller who tells a story an audience won't expect."-Time Out New York "Lynn Nottage's work explores depths of humanness, the overlapping complexities of race, gender, culture and history-and the startling simplicity of desire-with a clear tenderness, with humor, with compassion."-Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel In her first new play since the critically acclaimedRuined, Lynn Nottage examines the legacy of African-Americans in Hollywood in a dramatic stylistic departure from her previous work. Fluidly incorporating film and video elements into her writing for the first time, Nottage's comedy tells the story of Vera Stark, an African-American maid and budding actress who has a tangled relationship with her boss, a white Hollywood star desperately grasping to hold onto her career. Stirring audiences out of complacency by tackling racial stereotyping in the entertainment industry, Nottage highlights the paradox of black actors in 1930s Hollywood while jumping back and forward in time and location in this uniquely theatrical narrative. Premiered in New York in 2011 and will receive productions at L.A.'s Geffen Playhouse in fall 2012 and Chicago's Goodman Theatre and The Lyric Stage Company of Boston in spring 2013. Lynn Nottage's plays include the Pulitzer Prize-winningRuined;Intimate ApparelFabulation, or the Re-Education of Undi≠Crumbs from the Table of Joy;Las Meninas;Mud, River, Sto≠Por'knockers; andPOOF!