VTA 2024: Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

What happens when a playwright, hoping for creative freedom, has to pitch a new play to a mean, penny-pinching Board of Directors? It's a story as old as theatre itself!  Find out what happened to the great story-teller Hans Christian Andersen in this new play, imagined by renowned performance artist Claudia Stevens.  Set in Denmark almost 200 years ago, it could be happening right now: Andersen wants to express himself as a gay man. But the Board wants what will sell- maybe even a repeat of Shakespeare's Hamlet!  So, Andersen has to trick them with an alternative play about toys, hiding himself in the character of a tin soldier with only one leg who cannot find love. Everyone tries to get in on this fantasy play: the performers, members of the Board, even an egotistical "director" highjack Andersen's play. It ends in disaster and murder!  But Andersen has found new courage. He promises the Board a glorious new play about freedom. Its hero is a Black man on a Caribbean island who is free. This will become his most successful play and move all of Denmark to end slavery in their colonies.