Lorraine Hansberry

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 5/19/16 at 1:15pm

There was more to this writer than RAISIN.  I would absolutely love to see the Goodman's production of THE SIGN IN SIDNEY BRUSTIEN'S WINDOW transferred to New York.  Maybe the Roundabout could produce LES BLANCS.  Oh, that's right.  They don't like the coloreds.

 

http://www.americantheatre.org/2016/05/19/young-gifted-black-lorraine-hansberry-after-her-moment-in-the-sun/

 

 

[KJisgroovy]

Posted: 5/19/16 at 1:25pm

Sidney Brustein at the Goodman was just fantastic. I loved it so much. There were a handful of angry subscriber walkouts, though, so I'm not sure if it's viable for a commercial production.

[rangersrule132]

Posted: 5/19/16 at 1:25pm

OH cool A Rasin in the Sun

[imeldasturn]

Posted: 5/19/16 at 1:46pm

I saw les blancs at the National Theatre and it was a really solid play and a stunning production.

[A Director]

Posted: 5/19/16 at 5:36pm

Three years ago, I saw a stunning production of The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.  In the 1990s, they did a stunning production of Les Blancs.  A few years later, they did a wonderful production of A Raisin in The Sun.

[Esther Blodgett]

Posted: 5/19/16 at 6:15pm

The article in American Theater Magazine states that Lorraine "may" have been closeted. Lorraine was a lesbian, albeit not a particularly open one. Very, very few people were out in the current sense of the term in those days, plus she remained legally married to Nemerov until the year before she died (They were separated for quite a long period). However within a tight social circle, people knew Lorraine was gay.

 

There was an article on Lorraine in Out Magazine a few years ago which interviewed people who knew her.

 

I believe theatre people ought to have a bad play that they champion. For whatever reason, my bad play is Sidney Brustein. The play is a bit of a mess. It is long. Uncut it runs 3+ hours.

 

There is way too much plot. The three sisters alone could be one play. Then there is race, politics, some of the characters are poorly drawn--the youngest sister, Gloria, in particular, and throughout the play is the deterioration of the Brustein marriage.

 

It has also failed twice on Broadway. 

 

Yet I love these characters. I am way too old and the wrong gender to play Mavis who in my opinion is one of the most memorable layered people in any American play. Still I will toss lines of hers into many of my own situations ("The things you think you have to talk about.", "Isn't life enough?", "Say what you will, its always something different down at Iris and Sid's."

 

This is a play that actors ought to be using for scene study class. The ones between Iris and Sidney are wonderfully written, and the one with Mavis and Sidney in Act Two is superior. But for God's sake, use a director.