I don't think this is going to make it into my interview with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, Lynn Nottage, whose "By the Way Meet Vera Stark" opens this week at Penumbra Theater in St. Paul. But I love it, so I'm mentioning it here. "Vera" is about the treatment of African American actresses, often consigned to maid roles, in the 1930s. And, two decades before she wrote it, Nottage actually met one of the most famous of those "maids," "Gone With the Wind" actress Butterfly McQueen:
"I wouldn't say I met her. I would describe it as running into her in the supermarket. My husband I heard her voice -- it's a very identifiable voice -- and turned around and there was Butterfly McQueen. She was quite charming and a little surprised we recognized her -- it was the late '80s, early '90s, so she was a very elderly woman (the actress lived from 1911-1995). I don't imagine she was recognized that often."
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