Miss Maybelline’s Nocturnal Flights of Fancy

This weekend, Emmy winner and Tony nominated actress S. Epatha Merkerson will be appearing in a production at the Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse for two performances only, May 19 and 20. Merkerson, known to many fans for her work on the shows “Law and Order” (17 seasons),“Chicago Med” (eight seasons), and, more recently, “Lackawanna Blues,” will star in a staged reading of the new play “Miss Maybelline’s Nocturnal Flights of Fancy.” The drama-comedy, which takes place primarily in Oak Bluffs, features characters drawn from former local residents, and focuses on a tight-knit community which has been relegated to Vineyard history.

“Miss Maybelline” is written by veteran television, stage, and screenwriter Kathleen McGhee-Anderson, who splits her time between her homes in Los Angeles and Oak Bluffs. McGhee-Anderson calls the play “an homage to a way of life that is gone,” explaining that School Street in Oak Bluffs was once populated by a number of African Americans whose local roots traced back generations. “People would sit on their porches and visit with each other,” she says. “That personality and culture has vanished. The character of the street has changed, and many of those characters have died.”