East Hampton’s Guild Hall is presenting the New Light Theater Project’s Production of “Hitler’s Tasters,” a play by Michelle Kholos Brooks. There will be three performances Thursday September 9th, Friday September 10th, and Saturday September 11th, with all performances starting at 8 p.m. It is a one act ninety minutes production.
Playwright Michelle Kholos Brooks in an interview with hamptons.com was very excited to share her thoughts about her play, it’s cast, and director. She said, “Before Covid, I was introduced to Josh Gladstone and we talked about doing something together. Of course, Covid happened and everything shut down. Then recently he reached out and asked if we would be interested in doing the play at Guild Hall and I obviously said yes. This production has been in New York, Chicago, Edinburgh and in L.A.”
Hitler’s Tasters is inspired by the story Margot Woelk revealed on her 95th birthday in 2012 in Germany. On that day, Ms. Woelk told a newspaper reporter she was one of 15 young women selected to be Hitler’s food tasters back in 1942. Ms. Brooks explained how she, “heard about this story completely by accident and it just touched all my buttons of concern about things I kind of think about in the world. You think you heard everything about Hitler and then there was this.” She mentioned how the 2016 election also influenced her thinking. She confessed, “This story was clearly living inside me, it was right there at the surface waiting to happen.” She said she practically wrote the first draft in 48 hours.
About doing the show live again Ms. Brooks said, “People are flying in to be able to do this, it’s a real labor of love. I can’t talk enough about the Director Sarah Norris who is fantastic. She has a company called the New Light Theater Project. Sara and I were put together after ‘Hitler’s Tasters’ was chosen for a women’s playwright festival in New Jersey a few years ago and Sara was actually assigned to direct it. She did beautiful things with it and the play won the festival. Then Sara brought it to New York with her company and we have been pushing along ever since. Sara is really innovative; she is really dynamic, she is phenomenal”
When asked about the cast consisting of Hallie Griffin, MaryKathryn Kopp, Kaitlin Paige Longoria and Hannah Mae Sturges, Ms. Brooks said, “I love this cast, I think watching them learn and dig deep into the play over time has helped me. I don’t think playwrights get many opportunities to see a play with the same casting crew and be able to work on it over multiple cities. I have on occasion had to update somethings… The thing is these girls have gotten so invested in these characters so that even if they deviate from the script at some point, I have no concern about it, because they understand their characters so well that they would never do anything out of context with their characters. They really get it.”
She finished the interview by saying, “I have not had a play on an actual stage in a good long time, I am so excited ‘Hitler’s Tasters’ will be back on stage in front of a live audience at Guild Hall.” Ms. Brooks confessed she has not seen a show in Guild Hall and looks forward to seeing the John Drew Theater.
Tickets are $50 ($35 for Guild Hall Members and $30 Under 30), and the Friday night performance includes a post-show talkback and audience Q&A with the playwright. For more information about the show visit www.guildhall.org
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