Treasures in Our Own Backyard: Vera J. Katz

When it comes to hidden treasures, we’ve got gold right in our own backyard! Silver Spring’s Vera J. Katz is exactly that, a jewel of a treasure living in the community. Katz is a theater aficionado - professor, celebrated director, dramaturge and acting coach. The Theater Professor Emeritus who taught in the historical theater department at Howard University for 32 years, made such an impact that students she taught over thirty years ago still call on her. She’ll be leaving in May to spend six weeks with former student director/choreographer Debbie Allen in Los Angeles.

She will be assisting Allen with the Broadway bound musical production of Twist, an adaptation of Oliver Twist. Many of her students such as Oscar nominated Taraji Henson and Oscar winner Diane Houston, Helen Hayes Award recipients Phylicia Rashad, Marva Hicks and Dawn Ursula, and actors and directors like Debbie Allen, Lynne Whitfield, Lynda Gravatt, Wendy Raquel Robinson, Isaiah Washington, Anthony Anderson and CNN anchor Fredericka Whitfield, still keep in touch and tap her theater expertise.    

Katz has been in the business of theater for sixty years, starting as a child in Brooklyn, New York where her mother, an actress in community theater, dragged her along to rehearsals. Her aunt opened the Lisa Samsonoff School of Acting in Brooklyn after studying with the great Stanislavski - the Russian director who originated “method” acting. Katz spent her Saturdays working with her aunt in the school. Immersed in theater, she was a thespian in high school, and went on to major in theater at Brooklyn College and from there to Boston University, where she received her MFA in theater. Upon completing graduate school, she returned to New York where she cut her teeth working as an assistant to the prolific tin pan alley playwright & director Moss Hart (You Can’t Take it with you, A Star Is Born).

When Katz married, he husband's new job brought her Washington where she became involved in community theater directing with the Montgomery and the Reston Players. Later in her career, she landed a teaching position in theater at Howard University.  

Vera began her teaching career at Howard on the heels of the riots in D.C., in the midst of the Black Power movement. Vera admits to feeling uncomfortable and even intimidated by the militant climate on campus when she first arrived at Howard in 1969. Being a feisty, red headed, Jewish woman on the campus of a historically black university, she was not exactly received with open arms. Yet, a tenacious spirit, Vera rolled up her sleeves and learned everything she could about Black theater, eventually winning over colleagues and students.

One of the highlights of her career at Howard was directing “Whose Afraid of Virginia Wolf” and having the honor to host a visit from the celebrated playwright Edward Albee, whom warmly accepted a personal invitation from Vera to come to the Black Mecca.

These days, though Katz is retired, she’s still almost as busy as when she was a full-time professor. Unable to walk away from her love for the theater, she teaches acting part-time at the Duke Ellington High School of the Arts in Washington. You can still find her around town conducting master classes in acting/directing, and coaching for private students.  

Before leaving for Los Angeles to work with Debbie Allen, Katz will be directing a staged reading of “The Misfortune of Kings” by Thomas Mason, Jr., May 6 and 7 at the Bonifant Theater Space in downtown Silver Spring. Katz is still dancing as fast as she can and from the looks of her dance card, it’ll be years before this Silver Spring treasure takes her final curtain call!

Editor's Note: This story has been corrected. In an earlier version of this story, we incorrectly stated Taraji P. Henson's status as an Oscar winner. She was an Oscar nominee. We apologize for the error.