Three times a day, every day, a group of young women have the opportunity to die for their country. They are Adolf Hitler's food tasters. And what do girls discuss as they wait to see if they will live through another meal? Like all girls, throughout time, they gossip and dream, they question and dance. They want to love, laugh, and above all, they want to survive.
Photo by Hunter Canning, IRT Theater
Casting:
Hilda: High teens to early 20’s. Blonde. Hilda is a rule follower. She is a fearful person who will use whatever she's got to get back to feeling safe and will always toe the party line. She comes from a military family and enjoys the privilege of that status.
Liesel: High teens to early 20’s. Liesel is a mediator. She is not a particularly independent person but she is practical and mostly kind. She likely comes from a family of intellectuals who know right from wrong but who prefer to keep their heads down rather than agitate. She is a little nerdy to contrast with her burgeoning sexuality.
Anna: High teens. She could have dark hair, but not ethnically dark. She is more ethereal, idealistic and innocent than the other girls. Anna represents truth and doubt, which terrifies those who can’t live with truth and doubt.
Margot: High teens, early 20’s. She is a little more brave than the other girls when it comes to acting out and expressing herself. She embodies the kind of innocence and ebullience that comes from blindly supportive parents and privilege.
Extra Girl: Can be played by an understudy or possibly the girl who played Anna--as long as she is not recognizable as Anna.
Author
Michelle Kholos Brooks is an award-winning playwright with productions staged internationally. Awards and distinctions include the Susan Glaspell Award for H*tler’s Tasters and the Riva Shiner Comedy Award for Kalamazoo. H*tler’s Tasters was named Best of Fringe by Stage Magazine at Edinburgh Festival Fringe after an entirely sold-out run and was selected for the annual Kilroy’s List. Hostage was a finalist for the Woodward/Newman Drama Award. (Ret) General David Petraeus said of Brooks’ play, War Words, “Few movies or plays have ever captured for me as powerfully as War Words…the experiences of American veterans.” War Words will have its world premiere in New York in the fall of 2023.
Publications include Dramatists Play Service, Room Magazine, and The Daily Beast.
Brooks is the Playwright-In-Residence at New York Rep. She is a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council, Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, a member of The Dramatists Guild of America, The Playwright’s Center, and Pacific Resident Theatre.... [FULL BIO]