Dawn Ursula to Return to Arena Stage in A RAISIN IN THE SUN This Spring

D.C.-based powerhouse actress and two-time Helen Hayes Award winner Dawn Ursula, last seen at Arena Stage in Love in Afghanistan, will return to play Ruth Younger in Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun under the direction of Tazewell Thompson. Additional casting will be announced at a later date.

Also, due to popular demand, the production has been extended for one week with eight additional performances and will run March 31-May 7, 2017 in the Fichandler Stage.

Lorraine Hansberry's groundbreaking masterpiece follows the Younger family yearning for a better life far from the cramped confines of their Chicago tenement. Hope arrives in the form of an unexpected financial windfall, but family ties are strained when they realize they have differing definitions of the American dream, which dreams get realized and which deferred? A Raisin in the Sun paints the African-American experience in brilliant and powerful strokes, as vibrant and vital today as they were in 1959.

For additional information and to purchase tickets, visit arenastage.org/shows-tickets/the-season/productions/a-raisin-in-the-sun.

Dawn Ursula (Ruth Younger) is thrilled to return to Arena Stage after performing in Love in Afghanistan. Select D.C. credits include Dot (Everyman Theatre, resident company member), Zombie: The American (Woolly Mammoth, resident company member) and the Angel in Angels in America I & II (Round House Theatre). She has been nominated for and received Baltimore City Paper and Helen Hayes Awards. TV/film credits include The Wire and Veep (HBO) and Prince Among Slaves (PBS). She has an M.F.A. from The Shakespeare Theatre's Academy for Classical Acting at George Washington University and a B.A. from The University of Virginia. Private Coach Vera Katz. Visit www.dawnursula.com.

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater, under the leadership of Artistic Director Molly Smith and Executive Director Edgar Dobie, is a national center dedicated to American voices and artists. Arena Stage produces plays of all that is passionate, profound, deep and dangerous in the American spirit, and presents diverse and ground-breaking work from some of the best artists around the country. Arena Stage is committed to commissioning and developing new plays through the American Voices New Play Institute. Arena Stage impacts the lives of over 10,000 students annually through its work in community engagement. Now in its seventh decade, Arena Stage serves a diverse annual audience of more than 300,000. Go to arenastage.org.