First produced in 1959, Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun was the winner of the New York Critics Circle Best Play of the Year and its impact on American theatre is as strong today as when it first premiered. The first Broadway play written by a black woman, the New York Times claimed in 1983 that A Raisin in the Sun “changed American theatre forever” with a radically new representation of black life that was authentic, unsentimental, and undeniably ahead of its time.
Awaiting the arrival of a life insurance check after the death of the family patriarch, the Younger family contemplates the best use of the life-changing sum of money. Living on Chicago's South Side, in a small tenement that has accommodated too many people for too many years, they dream of their own home, higher education, and a business investment opportunity. When the money arrives and all their dreams seem to be within reach, an unexpected turn of events puts the entire future of the family in jeopardy. Before they can move forward the Younger family must face essential questions about identity and legacy that explore what survives when a family’s dreams are constantly deferred.
as a part of THE RAISIN CYCLE
A Raisin in the Sun is the central play of our cycle; both Genesis and Clybourne Park were written in response to and in dialogue with this play. Created by Lorraine Hansberry, Lena (or Mama) is the fundamental thread that connects all three plays. She is the widowed matriarch in A Raisin in the Sun and her yearning for a better life, with opportunities for her children, is the crux of the Younger family’s story. Her love for her family is the inspiration for Mercedes White’s Genesis and Lena’s actions in A Raisin in the Sun, create the world in which Bruce Norris' Clybourne Park exists.
playwright Lorraine Hansberry
director Sydney Chatman
dramaturg Annaliese McSweeney
producer/scenic design Katherine Arfken
costume design Brenda Winstead
lighting design Levi J. Wilkins
sound design Brian Thomas Chopps
company manager/casting director Mark Baer
stage manager Mia Godfrey
assistant stage manager Jasmine Jaramillo
assistant sound designer/sound board operator Nana Asabere
run crew Isaiah Rayburn
production manager/technical director Tim O'Donnell
assistant technical director Brian Thomas-Chopps
prop managers Michael Litke Adams and Espi Flores
assistant costume designer Billie Chatman
assistant lighting designer/master electrician Laquita Williams
scene shop crew Eric Munoz, Kaitlin Nichols, Jacob Rodriguez, T225 Stagecraft class
electrics crew
Ruth Younger Rose Simmons
Travis Younger
Walter Lee Younger Dannon Gorham
Beneatha Younger Courtney Nicole
Lena Younger (Mama) Denina White
Joseph Asagai Anthony Richardson Jr.
George Murchison Jordan Holmes
Karl Lindner
Bobo
moving men