A Raisin in The Sun – Nine Performances February 22 – March 16

A Raisin in The Sun – Nine Performances February 22 – March 16

A Raisin in the Sun at Park Square Theatre, Saint Paul/Minneapolis Minnesota

 

Saint Paul, Minn., Feb 7, 2018 – Park Square Theatre is delighted to offer nine performances of Lorraine Hansberry’s classic and timely A Raisin in the Sun as part of its extended run of student performances (Feb 14 – Mar 23). This fiercely moving portrait of a family living and dreaming on Chicago’s South Side in the 1950s was the first play written by an African American woman to be produced on Broadway. The Washington Post hails it as “one of a handful of great American plays – it belongs in the inner circle, along with Death of a Salesman, Long Day’s Journey Into Night and The Glass Menagerie.”

When reflecting on the play, director Warren C. Bowles says, “Issues here go beyond race. This is a play about feminism, about religion in the family life, about the structure of family. What the Andy Boss Thrust Stage gives us that other places have not is really surrounding this family in their home. We’re in the room with them.”

 

A Raisin in the Sun is the tale of the Youngers, a Chicago family on the hopeful brink of progress. When Walter Lee Senior passes, his life insurance payment promises opportunities for better neighborhoods and higher education, but Walter Lee Junior (Darius Dotch*) has his own dreams for the money. When his scheme unravels and the white neighborhood association objects to the family’s move, they must decide what happens – in the words of Langston Hughes’s poem that gives the play its title – if a dream is deferred.

Hansberry’s play has entered the American canon as a classic of midcentury drama and, importantly, as an all-too-rare (at the time) depiction of African American life on the predominantly white Great White Way. Hansberry’s intentional depiction of multiple generations, augmented with multiple iterations of American blackness, makes her work a landmark beyond its “first” status. The playwright’s powerful yet tender treatment of a striving family remains as timely today as it was a half-century ago.

The cast also includes Ivory Doublette* (Ruth Younger), Calvin Zimmerman (Travis Younger), Imani Vaughn-Jones (Beneatha Younger), Cynthia Jones-Taylor* (Lena Younger), Darrick Mosley* (Joseph Asagai), Daniel Coleman (George Murchison), Derek “Duck” Washington (Bobo), and Robert Gardner (Karl Linder).

The production team for A Raisin in the Sun includes Lance Brockman (Set Designer) A. Emily Heaney (Costume Designer), Michael P. Kittel (Lighting Designer), Evan Middlesworth (Sound Designer), Sadie Ward (Properties Designer), Robert “Bobbie” Smith (Properties Master), Emily Madigan (Choreographer), Theo Langason (Assistant Director), Laura Topham* (Stage Manager).

*Member, Actors Equity Association

 


Performance Schedule

Performances begin February 22 and continue through March 16.

Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. except for Saturday and Sunday matinees, which begin at 2 p.m. All performances are on the company’s Andy Boss Thrust Stage in Saint Paul’s historic Hamm Building, 408 St. Peter Street.

 


Tickets

Regular Run: $25, $40 and $60. Tickets for patrons 30 and under are $21.

Discounts are available for seniors, those under age 30, and groups. Tickets are on sale at the Park Square ticket office, 20 W. Seventh Place, or by phone: 651.291.7005, (12 noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday), or online at www.parksquaretheatre.org.

 


Calendar

Feb 22 – Mar 16, 2018

P: Preview
O:
Opening Night
D: Post-show Discussion
S: Student matinee – call for time
AD: Audio Description
ASL: American Sign Language
C: Open Captioning
M: Musings

* B (Bargain Preview) valid for matinee performance only
* AD valid for evening performance only
* C valid for evening performance only.

 


Up Next on the Proscenium Stage:

THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK

By Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett
Directed by Ellen Fenster

Four performances April 19 – 28

Revisit this poignant classic and share it with the young people in your life. You’ll be inspired by the hope of a young girl who, in the midst of the Holocaust, could write: “In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart.”

Tickets

The box office is currently closed. Please email tickets@parksquaretheatre.org with any questions.

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