Lorraine Hansberry News

My belated mother once said, 'Your house is your house and your life is your life, and they really are two separate things.' But are they? Playwright Bruce Norris explores this question in Clybourne Park a provocative play set in an ordinary house in a fictional Chicago suburb.

Before Thursday's opening night performance of Paul Oakley Stovall's IMMEDIATE FAMILY, The Ensemble Theatre's Artistic Director Eileen J. Morris explained that their 37th season is all about creating magical moments within productions and within the community of their ever-growing audience base. Creating the first of many magical moments for the evening, she then proudly asserted that the E in ensemble stands for everyone, welcoming every member of the opening night audience to the theatre. Following suit, the heartwarming family-centered comedy IMMEDIATE FAMILY left audiences rolling in the aisles while exploring the importance of family and the power and beauty of acceptance, love, and understanding that members of our chosen and biological families can offer us.

Artistic Director Molly Smith announced today, playwright Lydia R. Diamond, whose impressive body of work includes Stick Fly, Voyeurs de Venus, The Bluest Eye and The Gift Horse, among others, will become a resident playwright as part of the American Voices New Play Institute at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. Diamond's yearlong residency will begin Tuesday, October 1, 2013.

General tickets go on sale today, September 21, for Tony Award-winner and two-time Academy Award-winner Denzel Washington as Walter Lee Younger in Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, opposite film, television and Tony Award-winning stage star Diahann Carroll as Lena Younger, in her first Broadway appearance in over 30 years. The production will be directed by Tony Award-nominee Kenny Leon. Previews begin March 8, 2014, with opening night on April 3, 2014 at the Barrymore Theatre (243 West 47th Street), where the original production of A Raisin in the Sun opened 55 years ago. A Raisin in the Sun is a limited engagement, running 14 weeks only through June 15, 2014. Tickets will be available at www.telecharge.com or by calling Telecharge.com at 212-239-6200.

A RAISIN IN THE SUN by Lorraine Hansberry is gearing up for its run at Stageworks Theatre at Grand Central at Kennedy in Tampa, Fla., beginning October 3, opening October 4 and running through the 20th. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast below!

Redtwist's Clybourne Park, by Bruce Norris and directed by Steve Scott will open Saturday, October 5, at 3pm.

An off-shoot of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, this wickedly funny and frank play about territory won both the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the 2012 Tony Award for Best Play. Clybourne Park's two acts are set 50 years apart. Act One takes place in 1959 as nervous community leaders try to stop the sale of a home to a black family. Act Two is set in the same house in the present day as the now predominantly African-American neighborhood battles to hold its ground in the face of gentrification.

Dallas Theater Center launches its 2013-14 season with A Raisin in the Sun. Tre Garrett of Fort Worth's Jubilee Theatre will make his directorial debut at DTC with this Tony Award-winning play. A Raisin in the Sun begins with a Pay-What-You-Can performance tonight, September 13 and runs through Sunday, October 27 at the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre in the AT&T Performing Arts Center.

Good Theater kicks off its 12th season with the 2012 Tony Award winning Best Play CLYBOURNE PARKby Bruce Norris, playing October 2-27, at the St. Lawrence Arts Center, 76 Congress Street, Portland. Contact Good Theater at 207-885-5885 or www.goodtheater.com for tickets and information.

A new exhibition, Twice Militant: Lorraine Hansberry's Letters to 'The Ladder,' examines a lesser-known aspect of the life of the award-winning author of the landmark play A Raisin in the Sun, who died in 1965 at the age of thirty-four. The exhibition features documents and publications addressing Hansberry's identification as a feminist and a lesbian, and will be on view in the Herstory Gallery of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art from November 22, 2013, through March 16, 2014.

Arkansas Repertory Theatre (The Rep), the state's largest nonprofit professional theatre, has announced its 38th MainStage Season. The new season will include vibrant new artistic experiences that exemplify The Rep's mission of producing diverse work of the highest artistic standards for its Arkansas audience.

TimeLine Theatre Company begins its 2013-14 season with the award-winning play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, directed by Ron OJ Parson, now through November 17, 2013 at TimeLine Theatre, 615 W. Wellington Ave, Chicago. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

Capital Stage opens its 2013-14 Season THE HOMEFRONT with a Sacramento Premiere and the Winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize and 2012 Tony Award for Best Play. CLYBOURNE PARK is a bitingly funny and fiercely provocative new play about the volatile combination of race and real estate. This ferociously sharp play is inspired by Lorraine Hansberry's popular classic A RAISIN IN THE SUN. CLYBOURNE PARK runs from tonight, September 4 through October 6 with a press opening on Saturday, September 7.

Unicorn Theatre announces its 40th season of BoldNewPlays. Forty seasons is a milestone few theatres achieve. The theatre plans to present seven shows that will sweep up audiences on an audacious journey through cutting-edge, provocative and original entertainment. Prepare to experience dramatic highs, shocking revelations and plenty of laughs during seven unique evenings of live theatre.

The acclaimed playwright is being celebrated in staged readings through Sept. 28 at The Greene Performance Space in Lower Manhattan.

Tickets will be on sale exclusively to American Express cardholders from Wednesday, September 4 through Friday, September 20 only for Tony Award-winner and two-time Academy Award-winner Denzel Washington as Walter Lee Younger in Lorraine Hansberry's A RAISIN IN THE SUN, opposite film, television and Tony Award-winning stage star Diahann Carroll as Lena Younger, in her first Broadway appearance in over 30 years. General on-sale will begin on Saturday, September 21. The production will be directed by Tony Award-nominee Kenny Leon. Previews begin March 8, 2014, with opening night on April 3, 2014 at the Barrymore Theatre (243 West 47th Street), where the original production of A RAISIN IN THE SUN opened 55 years ago. A RAISIN IN THE SUN is a limited engagement, running 14 weeks only through June 15, 2014. Tickets will be available at www.telecharge.com or by calling Telecharge.com at 212-239-6200.

Fresh off the highly popular and critically acclaimed season of 'Power Plays,' Capital Stage will explore the theme of 'The Homefront' in its ambitious ninth season as Sacramento's home for bold, thought-provoking live theatre.

Capital Stage opens its 2013-14 Season THE HOMEFRONT with a Sacramento Premiere and the Winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize and 2012 Tony Award for Best Play. CLYBOURNE PARK is a bitingly funny and fiercely provocative new play about the volatile combination of race and real estate. This ferociously sharp play is inspired by Lorraine Hansberry's popular classic A RAISIN IN THE SUN. CLYBOURNE PARK runs from September 4 through October 6 with a press opening on Saturday, September 7.