The New York Times is reporting that Sanaa Lathan will star in the world premiere of Lynn Nottage's new play, Meet Vera Stark. Lathan will play the title character, who is described as a headstrong African-American maid and budding actress.
Playwright Nottage is known for "drawing on the screwball films of the 1930s to take an irreverent look at racial stereotypes in Hollywood."
Speaking of racial stereotypes, Lathan cracked us up — and started her share of delightfully fraught and controversial conversations — with her role in Something New, the romantic comedy in which she played a black corporate lawyer who fell in love with a white man. (No, we still can't explain who signed off on using an obvious weave for her supposedly "natural" hairdo in that film. And yes, we still think we'd be rich if we had a nickel for every time the movie started a "Should black women date white men?" debate.)
We hope her role in Nottage's newest work will provide as much fodder for blog and black-professional dinner-party chit-chat and serious analysis alike.
The production will begin previews April 6 and open May 9 off-Broadway at Second Stage Theatre.
Read more at the New York Times.
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