Vanessa R. Butler has won an 27th Annual Connecticut Critics Circle Award, “Outstanding Actress—Play.” She won the award on June 27, 2017 for her lead role in “Queens for a Year,” Hartford Stage. The award is a celebration of the best in professional theater in the state of Connecticut.
Author: j4butler
Lead Role, ‘Queens for a Year,’ Hartford Stage
I am proud to play a lead role in an arresting new play, Queens for a Year, from one of the writers of the TV series Army Wives. I play Molly Solinas, a young Marine Corps Officer, who unexpectedly returns to her family home in Virginia, bringing with her an even younger female Lance Corporal. Four generations of women who’ve served their country in the Marines clash during what at first appears to be a post-deployment vacation – but is revealed to be much more.
Queens for a Year, may bring to light prejudices and other problems, but it’s not anti-military. It incorporates really positive, meaningful things, aspects of solidarity when protecting and defending family. It’s about being initiated into this highly classified family and what happens when you’re in that family and somebody betrays you. It beautifully walks that line. It is dedicated to that service, to how you find justice.