H*tler’s Tasters, a new play by award-winning playwright Michelle Kholos Brooks (War Words, Kalamazoo) and directed by Sarah Norris (Everything is Super Great, This Wrestling Place), will play a four-week Off-Broadway engagement April 14-May 7, at Theatre Row. Opening night is Tuesday, May 3 at 7 PM.
Inspired by true events, H*tler’s Tasters is an anachronistic and dark comedy about the young women who have the “honor” of being Adolf Hitler’s food tasters. As they wait to see if they will live through another meal, the girls gossip, dream, question, and dance.
H*tler’s Tasters' all female–identifying cast and creative team is led by performers Hallie Griffin as Liesel, MaryKathryn Kopp as Hilda, Kaitlin Paige Longoria as Anna, and Hannah Mae Sturges as Margot.
The production will feature choreography by Ashlee Wasmund, scenic design by An-lin Dauber, costume design by Ashleigh Poteat, lighting design by Christina Tang, and sound design by Carsen Joenk. H*tler’s Tasters is presented by New Light Theater Project in association with NewYorkRep and Josh Gladstone.
H*tler's Tasters had its world premiere at New Jersey's Centenary Stage in 2018, which was followed by a run at New York’s IRT Theater the same year. Subsequent engagements have included a sold-out run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe; New York’s 59E59 Theaters East to Edinburgh Festival; Chicago’s North Shore Center for the Performing Arts; Los Angeles’ The Electric Lodge; Guild Hall in East Hampton, New York; and Pendragon Theatre in Saranac Lake, New York. A two-week engagement at North Carolina's Callope Stage is set to start March 30.
The work was the recipient of the 2017 Women Playwrights Series' Susan Glaspell Award; was named Best of Fringe by The Stage; and was included on The Kilroys 2020 List honoring new plays by women, trans, and non-binary writers of the American theatre which were derailed by COVID-19.
“H*tler’s Tasters is a play about the dangers of complacency, and sadly feels more relevant today than when I conceived of it a few years ago," shares Brooks. "Recent events in Ukraine only remind us that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. The girls in this play are from the families that looked the other way when the ‘others’ lost their lives. Madmen first come for the ‘others,' but when there is no one left, they turn on their own. At this very minute, bad actors in government are working to undermine this country. They are once again trying to control the ability for women to have autonomy over their bodies. They are surgically and deftly slicing away at our democracy with tiny, barely noticeable cuts. These small fissures create a chasm into which we’re all in danger of falling. I didn’t want these characters to be sepia-toned people in history. I wanted them to feel very, very present. The young women of H*tler’s Tasters are powerful reminders of what can happen when a society indulges in complacency.”
