A Raisin the Sun opened on Broadway in 1959 and critics and audiences took note. Novelist James Baldwin wrote, “Never before had so much of the truth of black people’s lives been seen onstage,” when introducing a posthumous collection of Hansberry’s body of work. The play offers insight into family, ambition and the legacy and promise of Black America as it follows three generations of the Younger household, who are living together in a three-bedroom “rat trap” on Chicago’s South Side in the early 1950s. Lena’s husband, Walter Sr., has just died, and the family is awaiting the $10,000 life insurance payment that he literally worked himself to death to earn. Lena shares the apartment with her children, daughter Beneatha and her older son Walter Jr., along with Walter Jr.'s wife Ruth and seven-year-old son Travis (who sleeps on the couch). Walter Jr. works, like his father before him, as a chauffeur. Ruth and Lena both work as maids. Beneatha is the first in the family to attend college, studying to become a doctor, and her struggle to be taken seriously as a scholar and professional, as well as her exploration of her African roots, foreshadow the work of a generation of black feminists to come.
Walter and his mother have different plans for the insurance payment, and the play’s conflict rests on the kind of security in which the family will ultimately place its hopes. Walter hopes to make his fortune by opening a liquor store with his friends. Lena wants to pay for Beneatha’s education and move the family from their tenement to a house (even if the only one she can afford is in a very white, very hostile suburb).
The play has been praised for its clear-eyed vision of the complications of the American dream — the opportunities it promises as well as the frustrations. At 28 Hansberry won the honor of becoming the youngest playwright and first African American awarded the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play of the Year, besting plays by Tennessee Williams and Eugene O'Neill.
Renowned director Israel Hicks has assembled a cast that includes Louisville-native Joy DeMichelle Moore who was a student at the Youth Performing Arts School (YPAS). Other cast members include Willis Burks II, Nicole Gant, Robert Greene, Clyde Tyrone Harper, Gilbert Owuor, Justice Pratt, Pierre LaFron Priest, Jr., Terrence Riggins (who was last seen in Gem of the Ocean in 2006), Marlene Warfield and Mick Weber.
Special Event
In conjunction wtih the theatre's production of A Raisin in the Sun, Actors Theatre is honoring Louisville's Porter Family for their community leadshership. The Porter family will be honored for their contribution to the community on December 7. Owners of the A.D. Porter and Sons Funeral Home, the Porter family is etched deeply in the history of Louisville and particularly the African American Community. Woodford Roy Porter, Sr. was an advocate for civil rights, education and equal opportunity. The Porter family has established numerous scholarships and endowments that continue to provide opportunity. Actors Theatre is proud to honor the memory of Woodford and Harriett Porter and to honor the children who continue the Porter family legacy; Sharon Porter, Marie Porter-Sales, Harriett “Ellie” Porter- Billops and Woodford “Woody” Porter Jr.
Ticket Information
Previews: $23, $25
Wednesday Matinee: $24, $34
Sunday-Thursday & Weekend Matinees: $30, $40
Opening & Friday-Saturday Evenings: $34, $44
The Gallery at Actors
During the run of A Raisin in the Sun the Gallery at Actors Theatre will feature the work of three glass artists from Flame Run Gallery —Anessa Arehart, Brook Forrest White, Jr. and Susie Slabaugh White. Brook Forrest White, Jr., co-owner of Flame Run Glass Studio in Louisville, invests himself in the magic and mystery of hot glass. He creates colorful, seductive forms with patterning that takes the viewer to another dimension. Susie Slabaugh White’s work explores the coupling of seductive form and radiant color with narrative images of her life. She use a collaboration of methods in an inventive way to get the desired results. Through this process, the energy trapped in the glass is fused with her energy found deep within. From sweat to substance, it is both meditative and exciting. Anessa Arehart's Beauty Paintings are loosely based on lessons learned from her Grandmother, Lena. Balanced with a good dose of modern practicality and a bit of humor, Anessa strives to keep a few basic rules alive in regards to Lena's personal standards of beauty, charm and poise. She believes it doesn't hurt to give a little nod of respect to tradition now and again and encourages a wee bit of decorum while swinging from the chandelier. Or at the very least, to be wearing a proper slip when doing so.
