THE ENSEMBLE THEATRE
www.ensemblehouston.com
 

Artistic Director of The Ensemble Theatre EILEEN J. MORRIS

Presents

BY THE WAY, MEET VERA STARK

By Lynn Nottage

Directed by Eileen J. Morris

March 20 - April 14, 2014

The Ensemble Theatre Presents 'BY THE WAY, MEET VERA STARK' by Lynn Nottage
 

HOUSTON, March, 2014  --

In a new comedy from the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright of RUINED, Lynn Nottage draws upon the screwball films of the 1930’s to take a funny and irreverent look at racial stereotypes in Hollywood.  BY THE WAY, MEET VERA STARK is a seventy year journey through the life of Vera Stark, a headstrong African-American maid budding actress, and her tangled relationship with her boss, a white Hollywood star desperately grasping to hold on to her career.  When circumstances collide and both women land roles in the same Southern epic, the story behind the cameras leaves Vera with a surprising and controversial legacy scholars will debate for years to come.

The Ensemble Theatre's 2013-2014 Season is sponsored in part by grants from the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance, Texas Commission on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. United Airlines is the exclusive airline sponsor for The Ensemble Theatre.

The Ensemble Theatre was founded in 1976 by the late George Hawkins to preserve African American artistic expression and to enlighten, entertain, and enrich a diverse community. Thirty-seven years later, the theatre has evolved from a small touring company to one of Houston's finest historical cultural institutions.

The Ensemble is one of a few professional theatres in the region dedicated to the production of works portraying the African American experience. The oldest and largest professional African American theatre in the Southwest, it holds the distinction of being one of the nation's largest African American theatres owning and operating its facility and producing in-house. Board President Emeritus Audrey Lawson led the capital campaign for The Ensemble's $4.5 million building renovations that concluded in 1997. The Ensemble Theatre has fulfilled and surpassed the vision of its founder and continues to expand and create innovative programs to bring African American theatre to myriad audiences.