A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry

– Courtesy photo

special event pre-show conversation on Thursday, March 15 with Mamie Hansberry, sister of the playwright

A Noise Within (ANW) presents A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, directed by Gregg T. Daniel, the sixth production of its 26th season performing February 25 to April 8 (Press Opening March 3).

In pre-civil rights America, an unexpected windfall offers a life-changing option for the Youngers, an African-American family living in a cramped Chicago apartment. They struggle with competing dreams and racial intolerance in Lorraine Hansberry’s seminal work.

Director Gregg T. Daniel said, “I am in awe of the sheer courage, imagination, and intelligence it took to write Raisin—how the mind of a 29-year-old ‘Negro’ playwright was driven to confront issues of Pan Africanism, feminism, and economic, gender and racial equality in such an eloquent and powerful manner.”

He continues, “Here we are, six decades later, and the play still speaks to us because it appears that intolerance, bigotry, and racial prejudice has once again found a hideous, contemporary voice in the American consciousness.”

ANW co-producing Artistic Director Julia Rodriguez-Elliott said, “A Raisin in the Sun was the breakout hit of our 2016 Resident Artist reading festival; we are excited to offer a full production of one of the greatest plays of the 20th century, with Gregg at the helm.”

Geoff Elliott continues: “All season we’ve explored the theme of ‘Entertaining Courage.’ Raisin explores courage, the power of hope, the limits of personal agency, and the stressors of our environment that push us towards action.”

A Raisin in the Sun runs from February 25-April 8. Thursday March 15, A Noise Within hosts The Charles Reese Experience and the Jackie Robinson Humanities and Arts Lecture Series presents, in conjunction with the A Noise Within Symposium Series: Mamie Hansberry, a pre-performance conversation with Mamie Hansberry, sister of the late Lorraine, from 6pm-7pm.

A Raisin in the Sun runs in rotating repertory with Shakespeare’s Henry V (February 4-April 6, 2018), and will be followed by Michael Frayn’s Noises Off (April 21-May 20).

Tickets for A Raisin in the Sun and all the spring 2018 productions start at $25, are available online at www.anoisewithin.org and by phone by calling 626-356-3100. A Noise Within is located on the corner of Foothill Boulevard and Sierra Madre Villa Avenue at 3352 East Foothill Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91107, just north of the Madre Street exit off the 210.

Operating in a state-of-the-art theatre complex in East Pasadena, A Noise Within annually produces seven mainstage productions. It is a cultural and artistic mainstay in the San Gabriel Valley, and is the largest employer of local Equity Actors in Los Angeles County.

The cast of Raisin in the Sun includes Ben Cain* as Walter Lee Younger, Toya Turner* as Ruth Younger, Amir Abdullah* as Joseph Asagai, Rosney Mauger as Bobo, Bert Emmett* as Karl Linder, Keith Walker as George Murchison, Saundra McClain* as Lena Younger, Sarah Hollis* as Beneatha Younger, and Sam Christian as Travis Younger. *denotes a member of Actors’ Equity Association

Directed by Gregg T. Daniel, Scenic Design by Stephanie Kerley Schwartz, Costume Design by Garry Lennon, Lighting Design by Stacy McKenney Norr, Sound Design by Jeff Gardner, and Choreography by Joyce Guy. Stage Manager is Gabrielle J. Bruno, Assistant Stage Manager is Canelle Irmas and the Assistant Director is Samantha Kofford.

THE LEGACY OF A RAISIN IN THE SUN

According to American Theatre magazine, Raisin is one of the ten most produced plays of this current theater season.

When the play debuted in New York in 1959 – the first play written by a black woman to be produced on Broadway, as well as the first with a black director (Lloyd Richards) – Hansberry herself noted that the play introduced details of black life to the overwhelmingly white Broadway audiences.  At the same time, director Richards observed that it was the first play to which large numbers of black people were drawn.

The work is notable for its insightful and sensitive depiction of an African American family at a time when the impact of “Jim Crow” laws and the ‘Separate but Equal’ doctrine were soon to be repudiated in the United States.  At that time thousands of formerly disenfranchised blacks were hoping to grasp a piece of the American Dream.

The title comes from the poem “Harlem” by Langston Hughes (What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? … maybe it just sags like a heavy load. Or does it explode?”).

Spike Lee said, “A Raisin in the Sun was a revelation to me. It’s still fresh. It is still relevant. Lorraine Hansberry was a visionary.” In The New York Times, Frank Rich said that A Raisin in the Sun “changed American theater forever.”

Hilton Als, in The New Yorker said, “Lorraine Hansberry was an integrationist – she knew the toll the struggle could take.  Walter is a deeply political, lonely figure.  Hansberry’s radicalism lay in giving a man like him language and making him go the course.”

Ben Brantley of the 2004 Broadway revival in The New York Times, “Raisin was remarkably prescient in identifying issues that would continue to shape African-American life: black men’s struggles for self-assertion in households dominated by strong women; the movement to separate African from American identities; Christianity as both an oppressive and redemptive power; the restlessness of women imprisoned by domesticity — all these elements come into play in Hansberry’s drama. And that’s before you get to the plot pivot in which the Younger family plans to move into a white neighborhood.”

Calendar Listing: A Raisin in the Sun:

By Lorraine Hansberry

Directed by Gregg T. Daniel

At A Noise Within, 3352 E Foothill Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91107

Performances:

Sunday, February 25 at 2 pm

Wednesday, February 28 at 7:30 pm

(Symposium at 6:30 pm)

Thursday, March 1 at 7:30 pm (Pay What You Can)

Friday, March 2 at 8 pm

Saturday, March 3 at 8 pm (Opening Night)

Sunday, March 4 at 2 pm

Sunday, March 11 at 2 and 7 pm

(Sunday Rush at 7 pm)

Thursday, March 15 at 7:30 pm (The Charles Reese Experience and the Jackie Robinson Humanities and Arts Lecture Series presents, in conjunction with the A Noise Within Symposium Series: Mamie Hansberry, 6 pm)

Friday, March 16 at 8 pm (Conversations)

Saturday, March 17 at 2 and 8 pm

Sunday, March 25 at 2 and 7 pm (Conversations after 2 pm; Sunday Rush at 7 pm)

Friday, March 30 at 8pm (Conversations)

Saturday, March 31 at 2 and 8 pm

Saturday, April 7 at 2 and 8 pm

Sunday, April 8 at 2 pm

Tickets and information:

Website: www.anoisewithin.org, Phone: 626-356-3100

Regular Prices:  Single Tickets from $25.00, Student Rush with ID an hour before performance $20.00

Pay What You Can: Thursday, March 1 at 7:30 pm  – all tickets remaining are Pay What You Can, cash only, at the box office on day of performance starting at 7 pm.

Sunday Rush: March 11 at 7 pm and March 25 at 7 pm – all tickets remaining are $25.00 after 2:30 pm cash or credit at the box office on day of performance.

Groups (10 or more): Adults from $30/ticket; Students from $18/ticket

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