Vera Starks and the persistence of black Hollywood stereotypes
Vera Starks and the persistence of black Hollywood stereotypes
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Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage’s By the Way, Meet Vera Stark is now showing at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre. In the satirical play, the title character is a black maid in the 1930s who dreams of becoming a movie actor. Her break comes when she is cast as a slave maid in a southern epic. Tamberla Perry, in the starring role as Stark, discusses the play, her own work and the struggle for respectable roles for black actors. Vera Stark director Chuck Smith also weighs in. What are Hollywood’s worst stereotypes?
Photo Credit: Flickr/Richie Diesterheft