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as Stephen Colbert reciting "A Dream Deferred" just before the closing credits. A Raisin in the Sun A Raisin in the Sun is a play by Lorraine Hansberry that debuted on Broadway in 1959. The title comes from the poem "Harlem" (also known as "A Dream Deferred") by Langston Hughes. The story tells of a black family's experiences in the Washington Park Subdivision of Chicago's Woodlawn neighborhood as they attempt to "better" themselves with an insurance payout following the death of the father. The New York Drama Critics' Circle named it the best play of 1959. Walter and Ruth Younger,
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A Raisin in the Sun as moving today as it was then." In 1960 "A Raisin In The Sun" was nominated for four Tony Awards: Some five months after its Broadway opening, Hansberry's play appeared in London's West End, playing at the Adelphi Theatre from August 4, 1959. As on Broadway, the director was Lloyd Richards, and the cast was as follows: The play was presented (as before) by Philip Rose and David J. Cogan, in association with the British impresario Jack Hylton. In 1961, a film version of "A Raisin in the Sun" was released featuring its original Broadway
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Saints in Three Acts" in 1952; and "My Darlin' Aida", an adaptation of a Giuseppe Verdi opera, which also opened in 1952. She also appeared with one of her mentors, the legendary Ethel Waters in the revival of the off Broadway production of "Mamba's Daughters". Allen was accepted into the Actors Studio, where she studied under the renowned acting teacher and actor Lee Strasberg. She was later cast as understudy in the part of "Beneatha Younger" in the 1959 Broadway premier production of playwright Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun". She later assumed the full-time role of "Beneatha Younger"
Billie Allen
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as Stephen Colbert reciting "A Dream Deferred" just before the closing credits. A Raisin in the Sun A Raisin in the Sun is a play by Lorraine Hansberry that debuted on Broadway in 1959. The title comes from the poem "Harlem" (also known as "A Dream Deferred") by Langston Hughes. The story tells of a black family's experiences in the Washington Park Subdivision of Chicago's Woodlawn neighborhood as they attempt to "better" themselves with an insurance payout following the death of the father. The New York Drama Critics' Circle named it the best play of 1959. Walter and Ruth Younger,
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A Raisin in the Sun A Raisin in the Sun is a play by Lorraine Hansberry that debuted on Broadway in 1959. The title comes from the poem "Harlem" (also known as "A Dream Deferred") by Langston Hughes. The story tells of a black family's experiences in the Washington Park Subdivision of Chicago's Woodlawn neighborhood as they attempt to "better" themselves with an insurance payout following the death of the father. The New York Drama Critics' Circle named it the best play of 1959. Walter and Ruth Younger, their son Travis, along with Walter's mother Lena (Mama) and Walter's sister
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still a student at Abraham Lincoln High School, with no formal drama training. Gossett's Broadway theatre credits include "A Raisin in the Sun" (1959). Gossett stepped into the world of cinema in the Sidney Poitier vehicle "A Raisin in the Sun" in 1961. Also in 1961, Gossett appeared in the original cast of Jean Genet's "The Blacks", the longest running off-Broadway play of the decade, running for 1,408 performances. The original cast also featured James Earl Jones, Roscoe Lee Browne, Cicely Tyson, Godfrey Cambridge, Maya Angelou and Charles Gordone. In 1965, Gossett appeared in the musical play, "Zulu and the
Louis Gossett Jr.
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and wrote about feminism and homophobia, joining the Daughters of Bilitis and contributing two letters to their magazine, "The Ladder", in 1957 under her initials "LHN." She separated from her husband at this time, but they continued to work together. "A Raisin in the Sun" was written at this time and completed in 1957. Opening on March 11, 1959, "A Raisin in the Sun" became the first play written by an African American woman to be produced on Broadway. The 29-year-old author became the youngest American playwright and only the fifth woman to receive the New York Drama Critics Circle
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Claudia McNeil Claudia McNeil (August 13, 1917 – November 25, 1993) was an American actress known for premiering the role of matriarch Lena Younger in both the stage and screen productions of "A Raisin in the Sun". She later appeared in a 1981 production of the musical version of the play, "Raisin" presented by Equity Library Theater. She was twice nominated for a Tony Award, first for her onstage performance in "A Raisin in the Sun" (1959), and again for the play "Tiger Tiger Burning Bright" in 1962. She was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award and a BAFTA
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break during World War II while serving in the U.S. Army Air Force. Among Richards' accomplishments are his staging the original production of Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun", debuting on Broadway to standing ovations on 11 March 1959, and in 1984 he introduced August Wilson to Broadway in "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom". As head of the National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, he helped develop the careers of August Wilson, Wendy Wasserstein, Christopher Durang, Lee Blessing and David Henry Hwang. Richards was Dean of Yale School of Drama and Artistic Director of Yale Repertory Theatre,
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him as a token and it would inhibit him from asking for more substantive considerations afterward. Poitier worked relatively little over the following year; he remained the only major actor of African descent and the roles offered were predominantly typecast as a soft-spoken appeaser. He acted in the first production of "A Raisin in the Sun" on Broadway in 1959, and later starred in the film version released in 1961. He also gave memorable performances in "The Bedford Incident" (1965), and "A Patch of Blue" (1965) co-starring Elizabeth Hartman and Shelley Winters. In 1967, he was the most successful draw
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is African-American, "A Raisin in the Sun" was considered a risky investment, and it took over a year for producer Philip Rose to raise enough money to launch it. There was disagreement with how it should be played, with focus on the mother or focus on the son. When the play hit New York, Poitier played it with the focus on the son and found not only his calling but also an audience enthralled. After touring to positive reviews, the play premiered on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on March 11, 1959. It transferred to the Belasco Theatre on
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began acting in plays by such authors as William Shakespeare and Samuel Beckett. He graduated in 1956, passing on a scholarship to Temple University in order to pursue his craft at The Bessie V. Hicks School of Theatre (alongside fellow students Charles Dierkop and Bruce Dern with whom he second-acted plays doing their pre-Broadway tryouts in Philadelphia) while working at Browning King, a men's tailor shop at 14th and Chestnut streets. Hooks moved to New York City in 1959 to become an actor. That year, he debuted as Bobby Dean Hooks in a touring production of "Raisin in the Sun".
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Lincoln Kilpatrick Lincoln Kilpatrick (February 12, 1932 – May 18, 2004) was an American film, television, and stage actor. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Kilpatrick attended Lincoln University and earned a degree in drama before he began acting. Encouraged by Billie Holiday, Kilpatrick began his career in 1959 in the Broadway production of "A Raisin in the Sun". In the 1960s, he mainly guest-starred in television roles and bit parts in movies. His primary acting talents were showcased in stage and theater work, which he remained active in until his death. Kilpatrick was co-founder of the Kilpatrick-Cambridge Theatre Arts School
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A Raisin in the Sun (1961 film) A Raisin in the Sun is a 1961 drama film directed by Daniel Petrie and starring Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, Claudia McNeil, Diana Sands, Roy Glenn, and Louis Gossett Jr. (in his film debut), and adapted from the 1959 play of the same name by Lorraine Hansberry. It follows a black family that wants a better life away from the city. "A Raisin in the Sun" was released by Columbia Pictures on May 29, 1961. In 2005, the film was selected for preservation in the United States of America National Film Registry by
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A Raisin in the Sun (2008 film) A Raisin in the Sun is a 2008 American made-for-television film directed by Kenny Leon and starring Sean Combs, Audra McDonald, Phylicia Rashad, and Sanaa Lathan reprising their roles from the 2004 revival which was also directed by Leon. The teleplay by Paris Qualles is based on the award-winning 1959 play of the same name by Lorraine Hansberry and is the second film adaptation of that play following the 1961 film that starred Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, Claudia McNeil, and Diana Sands. "A Raisin in the Sun" debuted at the 2008 Sundance Film
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Hughes lived on the South Side and wrote for prominent African American newspaper, the "Chicago Defender" before moving to New York and becoming a key figure in the Harlem Renaissance. The post-World War II years brought poet Gwendolyn Brooks to the Culture Coast, where she wrote her collection "Annie Allen", the first work by an African American to win a Pulitzer Prize. Dramatist Lorraine Hansberry later made history as the first black woman produced on Broadway with the 1959 debut of her play "Raisin in the Sun", a fictionalized account of her family's experience of trying to move into a
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a way that mimicked how real women speak so she could draw her readers' focus to the experience of reading and listening. In December 1974, Shange performed the first incarnation of her choreopoem with four other artists at a women's bar outside Berkeley, California. After moving to New York City, she continued work on "for colored girls...", which went on to open at the Booth Theatre in 1976, becoming the second play by a black woman to reach Broadway, preceded by Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun" in 1959. Shange updated the original choreopoem in 2010, by adding the
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member of the American Shakespeare Theatre beginning with its first season in 1955, and played the role of Othello in the 1957 season. In December 1958 he came to London to play the leading role in "Moon on a Rainbow Shawl", by Errol John, at the Royal Court. In 1959 he again appeared in the West End, this time in the first London production of A Raisin In the Sun alongside Kim Hamilton. The show ran at the Adelphi Theatre and was directed again by Lloyd Richards. A life member of The Actors Studio, Hyman appeared throughout his career in
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encouragement from poets Robert Hayden and Langston Hughes, among others and began honing his talent as a writer. Working as a stage actor, Elder landed the role of Bobo in the original Broadway run of Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun" in 1959. Inspired by Hansberry and his friendship with dramatist Douglas Turner Ward, Elder set his sights on becoming a playwright. Sharing an apartment with Ward also helped inspire Elder to write a play titled "A Hysterical Turtle in a Rabbit Race" (1961). It was an early expression of Elder's chosen theme of the black family in a
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a new production of the play by director/producer Pauline Harris. This version restores the character of Mrs Johnson and a number of scenes that were cut from the Broadway production and subsequent film, with the following cast: The play opened April 6, 2017, at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., directed by Tazewell Thompson, with the following cast: The 2010 Bruce Norris play "Clybourne Park" depicts the white family that sold the house to the Youngers. The first act takes place just before the events of "A Raisin in the Sun", involving the selling of the house to the African American
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Awards including Best Revival, and Of Mice and Men became the first Broadway show to be filmed by the National Theatre of Great Britain’s NT Live and shown in cinemas around the world. Binder produced the first Broadway revival of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, starring Sean Combs, Audra McDonald, Phylicia Rashad and Sanaa Lathan. The 2004 production won two Tony Awards for Best Actress and Best Featured Actress in a Play. He is an Executive Producer of the ABC television movie based on the Broadway production. In 1998 Binder presented the off-Broadway hit De La Guarda, and
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the Sun" was the first play written by a black woman to be produced on Broadway, as well as the first with a black director, Mr. Richards. Hansberry noted that her play introduced details of black life to the overwhelmingly white Broadway audiences, while director Richards observed that it was the first play to which large numbers of black people were drawn. Frank Rich, writing in "The New York Times" in 1983, stated that "A Raisin in the Sun" "changed American theater forever." In 2016, Claire Brennan wrote in "The Guardian" that "The power and craft of the writing make
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Raisin (musical) Raisin is a musical theatre adaptation of the Lorraine Hansberry play "A Raisin in the Sun", with songs by Judd Woldin and Robert Brittan, and a book by Robert Nemiroff (who was Hansberry's former husband) and Charlotte Zaltzberg. The story concerns an African-American family in Chicago in 1951. The musical was nominated for nine Tony Awards, winning two, including Best Musical, and the Broadway production ran for 847 performances. In Chicago in 1951, an African-American family, Ruth Younger, her husband Walter Lee Younger, their son Travis and Walter's mother are living in a cramped apartment. Walter is a
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and Ralph Alswang. From 1942 to 1977, Alswang produced designs for nearly 100 Broadway productions, more than 70 of which were original productions. Alswang's first major design work was the scenery for the 1942 production of "Comes the Revelation" at Jolson's 59th Street Theatre. In 1946, Alswang designed the scenery for the Broadway revival of "Lysistrata". In addition to scenery, Alswang also designed lighting and costumes. He was the lighting designer for the original Broadway productions of "A Raisin in the Sun" and "Beyond the Fringe", each running for more than 500 performances. In some cases, such as the short-lived
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DeWindt staged an Off-Broadway production of "Raisin' Hell in the Son", a spoof of "A Raisin in the Sun" that he co-wrote with Reni Santoni. DeWindt served as production stage manager at the New York Shakespeare Festival for seven years. He was a director with Robert Hooks's Group Theater Workshop, which led to the creation of the Negro Ensemble Company, which he served with as a workshop director. DeWindt was the founder and artistic director of the American Theatre of Harlem, and artistic director of the Inner City Repertory Company in Los Angeles. In 1977, he formed the Hal DeWindt
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technical categories. Bill Duke directed the production, while Chiz Schultz produced. This production was based on an off-Broadway revival produced by the Roundabout Theatre. On 3 March 1996 the BBC broadcast a production of the play by director/producer Claire Grove, with the following cast: A revival ran on Broadway at the Royale Theatre from April 26, 2004, to July 11, 2004 at the Royale Theatre with the following cast: The director was Kenny Leon with David Binder and Vivek Tiwary producers. The play won two 2004 Tony Awards: Best Actress in a Play (Phylicia Rashad) and Best Featured Actress in
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and Carl Hancock Rux with an original sound score by violinist Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR). The show toured nationally, co-hosted by NPR's Michele Norris and WWNO's Eve Troeh and featuring Tony Award-winner Anika Noni Rose ("Caroline, or Change"); Tony Award-nominee Michele Shay (August Wilson's "Seven Guitars"); Jason Dirden (Tony Award-winning production "A Raisin in the Sun"); and Lucas Caleb Rooney ("Boardwalk Empire"). In 2015, Leon directed the live musical"The Wiz" for NBC. Cirque du Soleil is partnering on the production with plans to bring the show to Broadway. He is slated to direct both the television production and Broadway revival.
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Anika Noni Rose Anika Noni Rose (born September 6, 1972) is an American actress and singer known for her Tony Award-winning performance in the Broadway production of "Caroline, or Change" and her starring role as Lorrell Robinson in the 2006 film "Dreamgirls". She also voiced Tiana, Disney's first African-American princess in Walt Disney Pictures' 2009 animated film "The Princess and the Frog". In 2014, Rose played the role of Beneatha Younger in the Broadway revival of "A Raisin in the Sun", for which she was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play. She was named
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role in the 2017 BET drama "The Quad". Anika Noni Rose Anika Noni Rose (born September 6, 1972) is an American actress and singer known for her Tony Award-winning performance in the Broadway production of "Caroline, or Change" and her starring role as Lorrell Robinson in the 2006 film "Dreamgirls". She also voiced Tiana, Disney's first African-American princess in Walt Disney Pictures' 2009 animated film "The Princess and the Frog". In 2014, Rose played the role of Beneatha Younger in the Broadway revival of "A Raisin in the Sun", for which she was nominated for the Tony Award for Best
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a Play on June 13, 2010. From April to June 2014, Washington played the leading role in the Broadway production of Lorraine Hansberry's classic drama "A Raisin in the Sun", directed by Kenny Leon. The show received positive reviews and won the 2014 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play. Beginning March 22, 2018, Washington starred as Theodore "Hickey" Hickman in a Broadway revival of Eugene O'Neill's "The Iceman Cometh". The production, directed by George C. Wolfe, began regular performances April 26 and ran for 14 weeks. In 2010, Washington starred in "The Book of Eli", a post-Apocalyptic drama
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production of Neil Gaiman's "Neverwhere", adapted by Dirk Maggs. She appeared in 2014 on Broadway in the revival of "A Raisin in the Sun" as Ruth Younger. She won the Tony Award, Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play for this role, beating out co-star and fellow nominee Anika Noni Rose. In 2016, Okonedo returned to Broadway in Ivo van Hove's production of Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" at the Walter Kerr Theatre as Elizabeth Proctor opposite Bill Camp, Tavi Gevinson, Jason Butler Harner, Ciarán Hinds, Jim Norton, Saoirse Ronan, Thomas Jay Ryan and Ben Whishaw.
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Robert Gossett Robert Gossett (born March 3, 1954) is an American television, theater, and film actor. Gossett landed his first professional job after he graduated from high school in a production of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". He went on to act in the Broadway production of Lloyd Richard's "Fences", Hal Scott's "A Raisin in the Sun" and Donald McKayle's "The Last Minstrel Show". He also performed in the Negro Ensemble Company's productions of "Manhattan Made Me", "Sons & Fathers of Sons", "A Soldier's Play" and "Colored People's Time". Robert also has extensive television experience with guest starring roles
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Supposed to Die a Natural Death" for the Classical Theater of Harlem Company. Ralph Carter Ralph David Carter (born May 30, 1961) is an American actor and singer best remembered as Michael Evans, the youngest child of Florida and James Evans, Sr., on the CBS sitcom "Good Times" from 1974–1979. Before joining "Good Times", Carter appeared in the Broadway musical "Raisin," based on the Lorraine Hansberry drama "A Raisin in the Sun"; as was noted in the credits during the first season. Carter started on Broadway at just nine years old in the musical "The Me Nobody Knows". After runs
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Ralph Carter Ralph David Carter (born May 30, 1961) is an American actor and singer best remembered as Michael Evans, the youngest child of Florida and James Evans, Sr., on the CBS sitcom "Good Times" from 1974–1979. Before joining "Good Times", Carter appeared in the Broadway musical "Raisin," based on the Lorraine Hansberry drama "A Raisin in the Sun"; as was noted in the credits during the first season. Carter started on Broadway at just nine years old in the musical "The Me Nobody Knows". After runs in "Tough To Get Help", "Dude" and "Via Galactica", he landed his breakout
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at the Kenny Leon's True Colors Theatre Company; and a musical inspired by the work of rapper Tupac Shakur. In 2014, he directed the Broadway revival of "A Raisin in the Sun" starring Denzel Washington and LaTanya Richardson Jackson and the Broadway premiere of the musical "Holler If Ya Hear Me", featuring the discography of Tupac Shakur. Leon won the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play for his work on "A Raisin in the Sun". That same year Mr. Leon directed "NPR Presents Water±", written by award-winning NPR Science Correspondent Christopher Joyce, and award-winning theater writers Arthur Yorinks
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to write for a paper as an author before deciding to write her first play. Before becoming a playwright, she actively wrote for groups promoting African-American rights. She published a piece produced by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, advocating for the well being of African Americans. Hansberry's personal past, values, and involvement with ideological movements heavily influenced thematic elements in her plays. Her first piece as a playwright, "A Raisin in the Sun", drew attention to her as not only an author but as playwright. This piece received several awards and was the first Broadway production written by an African-American
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Richard Parnell Habersham Richard Parnell Habersham, born in Manhattan and raised in Harlem, is an African American actor in theatre and film and a real estate broker in New York City. Richard Habersham has appeared in theatre productions such as Ron Mark's fantasy farce "Panache!" and on Broadway in "Joe Turner's Come and Gone," the Tony Award nominated drama written by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright August Wilson. Habersham played the role of Travis Younger in the Union Square Theatre 25th Anniversary Off Broadway production of Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun." In film, Habersham played Eddie in Spike Lee's
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moved to New York City in 1968. He starred in "The Wiz" and other Broadway productions, such as "Purlie", "Ain't Misbehavin", and "Raisin in the Sun". His first film was "The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings", a baseball movie starring James Earl Jones and Richard Pryor. Films that followed included "Ragtime", "", "Police Academy", "Stealing Home", and "The Fisher King". One of the roles he is most fondly remembered for is that of Bitterman, Arthur Bach's long suffering chauffeur in the 1981 Dudley Moore hit, "Arthur". In 1990, Ross played Troy Maxson in a Cincinnati production of August
Ted Ross
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for six months at the Cort Theater in New York. Arielle’s producing credits include the film "Genius" and many Broadway and Off-Broadway shows including: "Les Liaisons Dangereuses", "The Elephant Man" starring Bradley Cooper, "The Cripple of Inishmaan" starring Daniel Radcliffe, "Lucky Guy" starring Tom Hanks, "" starring Bette Midler, "Annie", "Hamlet" starring Jude Law, "Frost/Nixon, Monty Python’s Spamalot", and "A Raisin in the Sun." In 2016, Arielle took a small step back from her production company to launch her newest venture, WhatShouldWeDo?!, a New York planning, recommendations, and booking service. In 2005, Madover formed The Living Room for Artists a
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the book of the musical "is perhaps even better than the play... 'Raisin' is one of those unusual musicals that should not only delight people who love musicals, but might also well delight people who don't". After the Broadway opening, Walter Kerr of "The New York Times" wrote, "The strength of "Raisin" lies in the keen intelligence and restless invention of a musical underscoring that has simply invaded Lorraine Hansbury's once tightly-knit, four-walled, close-quartered play, "A Raisin in the Sun", plucking the walls away, spilling the action onto the streets with a jittery down-flight of strings, mocking and matching realistic
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end of that year, he directed the Broadway premiere of August Wilson's "Gem of the Ocean". In spring 2007, he directed August Wilson's "Radio Golf". All three plays were nominated for Tony awards, and Leon was a Drama Desk Award nominee for "A Raisin in the Sun". He also directed the television version of "A Raisin in the Sun", which aired on ABC in February 2008. He was nominated for a Tony Award in 2010 for Best Director for his work on August Wilson's "Fences", starring Denzel Washington and Viola Davis, earning them both nominations and wins for Best Performance
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widely acclaimed production at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester, described by Dominic Cavendish in The Daily Telegraph as – “A brilliant play, brilliantly served.”. Michael Buffong, Ray Fearon and Jenny Jules all won MEN Awards. The cast were: – A second revival ran on Broadway from April 3, 2014, to June 15, 2014, at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. The play won three 2014 Tony Awards: Best Revival of a Play, Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play (Sophie Okonedo) and Best Direction of a Play (Kenny Leon). On 31 January 2016 the BBC broadcast
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thinking in terms of a more difficult role". She won fame by performing her roles magnificently, not by performing the maximum number of roles that she could. She read many scripts, but only chose the ones that spoke truly to her. By the end of her acting career, she was rewarded with three Obie awards, for "In White America" (1963) and "A Raisin In the Sun", and was in the Broadway production of "Having Our Say" (1995). In the early 1970s, Foster was admitted to a special graduate program in education at UMass. Gloria Foster was married to the actor
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Actress at the 77th Academy Awards in 2005. She later received a Golden Globe Award nomination for the miniseries "" (2006) and BAFTA TV Award nominations for the drama series "Criminal Justice" (2009) and the television film "Mrs. Mandela" (2010). Her other film roles include "Æon Flux" (2005), "Skin" (2008), "The Secret Life of Bees" (2008), and "Christopher Robin" (2018). On stage, Okonedo starred as Cressida in the 1999 Royal National Theatre production of "Troilus and Cressida". She made her Broadway debut in the 2014 revival of "A Raisin in the Sun" and received a Drama Desk Award nomination for
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production that moved to Broadway. Abady also did film & TV work, including, with the assistance provided by an American Film Institute grant, "To Catch a Tiger", a short film inspired by the life of Nina Friedman Abady, Abady's own mother. She later co-produced a TV remake of "A Raisin in the Sun", which starred Esther Rolle and Danny Glover. Despite her advanced breast cancer, she was active during the last years of her life, until her death, at her home in Manhattan, aged 52. She was survived by her husband, sister, and brother. Josephine Abady Josephine R. "Josie" Abady
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at the American Repertory Theater, Cambridge, Massachusetts, which transferred to Broadway. The work earned him a second Best direction of a play Tony Award nomination. However, he lost out to Kenny Leon who directed "A Raisin in the Sun". In April 2015, his production of Enda Walsh's adaptation of "The Twits" was described as "torture" by "Telegraph" Chief Critic Dominic Cavendish. Tiffany directed the stage play "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child". The play opened at the West End Palace Theatre, London on 7 June 2016 in previews and officially on 30 July. "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" opened
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"Boesman and Lena", "Peer Gynt", "The Threepenny Opera", "Tartuffe", "The Visit", "Fires in the Mirror", Adrian Hall and Robert Cumming's adaptation of "A Christmas Carol" (including the role of Ebenezer Scrooge), Terrence McNally's "Master Class", "Henry IV", Tennessee Williams' "Suddenly Last Summer" and, more recently, Lorraine Hansberry's "Raisin in the Sun" and Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest". Meek also appeared in the Broadway production of "Wilson in the Promised Land". In 2008, Meek appeared in "Blithe Spirit" at Trinity Rep, and Curt Columbus' adaptation of Antigone. She was in "Camelot", "The Crucible" and "Steel Magnolias" during the 2010-2011
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prominent acting role at the age of 13 as Travis Younger in the original Broadway production of Lorraine Hansberry's classic "A Raisin in the Sun", opposite Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, Claudia McNeil, Ivan Dixon, Louis Gossett, Jr., Lonne Elder III, John Fiedler and Diana Sands. While he did not play the role when it transferred to film in 1961, he intensified his studies at Manhattan's High School of Performing Arts. Upon graduation he apprenticed in regional and repertory companies throughout the country, including Tyrone Guthrie's Repertory Theatre, in which he performed in late '60s productions of "Good Boys", "Harper's Ferry",
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family; the second act takes place 50 years later. The 2013 play by Kwame Kwei-Armah entitled "Beneatha's Place" follows Beneatha after she leaves with Asagai to Nigeria and, instead of becoming a doctor, becomes the Dean of Social Sciences at a respected (unnamed) California university. The two above plays were referred to by Kwei-Armah as "The Raisin Cycle" and were produced together by Baltimore's Center Stage in the 2012–2013 season. Season 1, Episode 3 of "Strangers with Candy" is based around a school production of "A Raisin in the Sun", and features an excerpt from the 1961 movie as well
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in life was to move to New York to pursue a career on Broadway. Gloria Foster began her career on Broadway as she moved to New York in 1963. Her first role was Ruth in the show of "A Raisin in the Sun". She started an acting career as her agent, Ernestine McClendon, sent her on an audition for "In White America". The play was about the history of blacks in the United States and the oppression they had to face. Gloria Foster, "play[s] a 13-year-old Arkansas girl who tries to enter her Little Rock school". This was her first
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To Be Young, Gifted and Black (play) "To Be Young, Gifted and Black: Lorraine Hansberry in her Own Words", was written by Lorraine Hansberry, an American writer best known for her 1957 play "A Raisin in the Sun", a play that made Hansberry the first black author of a show on Broadway. After her death in 1965, Hansberry's ex-husband and friend, songwriter and poet Robert Nemiroff, collated her unpublished writings and adapted them into a stage play that first ran from 1968 to 1969 off Broadway. It was then converted into an equally successful autobiography with the same title. The
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July 17, 1971, in Hollywood, Florida, as Javen P. Campbell. Javen is number 12 out of 13 children. JAVEN began his TV career as a co-host on the "Paula White Show" on BET from 2001-2002. He has since become a frequent guest soloist appearing on many networks including BET, TBN, FOX, NBC, GMC, and more. His impeccable stage presence led him to star in numerous productions. He was a lead in the theatrical production of "A Raisin in the Sun." From 2002-2003, he starred in the off Broadway musical "The Rock and the Rabbi." He then moved to the big
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"Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", "Gem of the Ocean", "Raisin in the Sun" (2004 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play/Drama Desk Award), "Blue", "Jelly's Last Jam", "Into the Woods", and "Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death". Off-Broadway credits include Lincoln Center’s productions of "Cymbeline" and "Bernarda Alba"; "Helen", "The Story" and "Everybody's Ruby" at the Public Theater; The Negro Ensemble Company productions of "Puppet Play", "Zooman and the Sign", "Sons and Fathers of Sons", "In an Upstate Motel", "Weep Not For Me", and "The Great Mac Daddy"; Lincoln Center's production of Ed Bullins' "The Duplex"; and
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been reproduced internationally and is perhaps the artist's best known work, unchanged for more than 40 years. In 2006, the Sun-Maid Girl was animated for television commercials in which she walked and talked for the first time. The commercials were designed and produced by Synthespian Studios. Sun-Maid Sun-Maid Growers of California is a privately owned American cooperative of raisin growers headquartered in Kingsburg, California. Sun-Maid is the largest raisin and dried fruit processor in the world. As a cooperative, Sun-Maid is made up of approximately 850 family farmers who grow raisin grapes within radius of the processing plant. Sun-Maid also
Sun-Maid
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Enough" at the Mark Taper Forum. The musical was based on the works of Motown creator Berry Gordy and directed by Kenny Leon who had previously directed Sean Combs in the Broadway production of "A Raisin in the Sun". The musical co-starred such TV/Film/Theatre talent as Cleavant Derricks and Ellis Williams. On "Ugly Betty", Blue starred as Cliff St. Paul, a photographer at Mode magazine and love interest to Wilhelmina Slater's faithful assistant, Marc St. James, played by Michael Urie. Before his breakthrough role on "Ugly Betty", David was busy making guest appearances elsewhere, including "Veronica Mars", FX's series "Dirt",
David Blue (actor)
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which she eventually died at 34. The play was well received and was one of the most successful plays off-Broadway during the 1968–1969 season. The play is still anthologized and performed around the world. The autobiography adapted from the play was also critically acclaimed. To Be Young, Gifted and Black (play) "To Be Young, Gifted and Black: Lorraine Hansberry in her Own Words", was written by Lorraine Hansberry, an American writer best known for her 1957 play "A Raisin in the Sun", a play that made Hansberry the first black author of a show on Broadway. After her death in
To Be Young, Gifted and Black (play)
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Virginia Capers Eliza Capers (September 22, 1925 – May 6, 2004) was an American actress. She won the Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in a Musical in 1974 for her performance as Lena Younger in "Raisin", a musical version of Lorraine Hansberry's play "A Raisin in the Sun". Born in Sumter, South Carolina, Capers attended Howard University and studied voice at the Juilliard School in New York City. She made her Broadway debut in the musical "Jamaica" in 1957 as a replacement for Adelaide Hall in the role of Grandma Obeah, taking over the role when Hall left the
Virginia Capers
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and Famous Poems Illustrated". After being on the road with Don Elliott and Lionel Hampton, he attended Black Mountain College along with Josef Albers and Heinrich Jalowetz, and would later go to University of New Mexico along with Ernst Krenek. He also joined BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop, and while paired with Robert Brittan, they would begin work on Lorraine Hansberry's play "A Raisin In The Sun". The result was "Raisin". It premiered May 30, 1973 at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. and would move to Broadway at the 46th Street Theatre on October 18, 1973, transferred to
Judd Woldin
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termed her best work, and he adapted many of her writings into the play "To Be Young, Gifted and Black", which was the longest-running Off Broadway play of the 1968–69 season. It appeared in book form the following year under the title "To Be Young, Gifted and Black: Lorraine Hansberry in Her Own Words". She left behind an unfinished novel and several other plays, including "The Drinking Gourd" and "What Use Are Flowers?", with a range of content, from slavery to a post-apocalyptic future. "Raisin", a musical based on "A Raisin in the Sun," opened in New York in 1973,
Lorraine Hansberry
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life to editing and promoting Hansberry work who died at 34 from cancer. Nemiroff produced and co-wrote the Broadway musical "Raisin" based on "A Raisin in the Sun". Robert B. Nemiroff Robert B. Nemiroff (October 29, 1929– July 18, 1991) was an American theater producer and songwriter, and was the ex-husband of Lorraine Hansberry. He was a book editor and a music publisher. Nemiroff was an award-winning songwriter with co-writer Burt D’Lugoff the 1956 “Cindy, Oh Cindy,” and “Fifteen,” the theme for the movie "The World, the Flesh, and the Devil". He married Lorraine Hansberry in 1953 which Hansberry often
Robert B. Nemiroff
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Vivek Tiwary Vivek J. Tiwary (born May 15, 1973) is an American author and theater producer. Tiwary graduated high school from New York's Collegiate School and graduated college from the University of Pennsylvania in 1996, "magna cum laude", with undergraduate degrees from both the Wharton School of Business and the College of Arts and Sciences. In 2004, Tiwary was a lead producer for a Broadway revival of Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun". In 2010, Tiwary was a co-producer for both the Broadway productions of Green Day's rock opera, "American Idiot" and "The Addams Family". In total, Tiwary’s Broadway
Vivek Tiwary
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cast of Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, Claudia McNeil, Diana Sands, Ivan Dixon, Louis Gossett, Jr. and John Fiedler. Hansberry wrote the screenplay, and the film was directed by Daniel Petrie. It was released by Columbia Pictures and Ruby Dee won the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress. Both Poitier and McNeil were nominated for Golden Globe Awards, and Petrie received a special "Gary Cooper Award" at the Cannes Film Festival. A musical version of the play, "Raisin", ran on Broadway from October 18, 1973, to December 7, 1975. The book of the musical, which stayed close to
A Raisin in the Sun
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Ballyhoo", and Elton John and Tim Rice's musical "Aida", which went on to Broadway. The Alliance's endowment also rose from $1 to $5 million during his time there. Leon resigned from the Alliance in 2000 to take on other projects. These included being the co-founder and artistic director of True Colors Theater Company, a group based in both Atlanta and Washington, D.C. He also took his talents to Broadway. In the spring of 2004 he directed a revival of Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun", starring Sean Combs, Phylicia Rashad and Audra McDonald in his Broadway debut. At the
Kenny Leon
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Catholic. She retired in 1983 and two years later moved into the Actors’ Fund Nursing Home in Englewood, New Jersey. McNeil died there on November 25, 1993, from complications related to diabetes. Claudia McNeil Claudia McNeil (August 13, 1917 – November 25, 1993) was an American actress known for premiering the role of matriarch Lena Younger in both the stage and screen productions of "A Raisin in the Sun". She later appeared in a 1981 production of the musical version of the play, "Raisin" presented by Equity Library Theater. She was twice nominated for a Tony Award, first for her
Claudia McNeil
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1904. This book was reprinted by Fred B. Rothman & Co. in 1991. By 1912, Fresno's dominant industry, raisins, was in terrible shape. Prices were so low that they did not cover production costs. M. Theo Kearney's attempt to organize the raisin farmers had failed in 1904. After his death in 1906, several industry groups tried unsuccessfully between 1907 and 1912 to follow the Kearney model of a capitalized raisin cooperative. A group of prominent growers and Fresno businessmen, and Sutherland as their lawyer, formed the California Associated Raisin Company (later known as Sun-Maid). Similar to the Kearney model, the
William A. Sutherland
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Off-Broadway and "Me and Mrs. Jones" with Lou Rawls in Philadelphia. Both of the full-scale tuners were rumored for transfers, but neither made it anywhere after their limited engagements ended. Rose's big Broadway break was getting cast as Emmie Thibodeaux in "Caroline, or Change". In 2004, she was awarded the Theatre World Award, the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Featured Actress, and the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for "Caroline, or Change". In 2014, Rose returned to Broadway in a revival of "A Raisin in the Sun," receiving a nomination for the Tony Award for Best
Anika Noni Rose
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Color Purple", and, in 2009, "Guys and Dolls" (Revival) and "Memphis". Recent Broadway work includes "Dr Zhivago", "Side Show", and "A Streetcar Named Desire". Plays on Broadway have included "Lombardi", "The Miracle Worker" (Revival), "Magic/Bird" and the Tony Award-winning revival of "A Raisin in the Sun". His off-Broadway work as a costume designer includes "Hamilton", "Elaine Stritch at Liberty" (2001), "Boston Marriage" (2002), "Ruined", "One Flea Spare", "Flesh and Blood", and "Harlem Song" (Apollo Theater). In regional theatre he has designed costumes for, among many, Arena Stage ("The Women", 1999, and "Polk County", 2002), The Guthrie Theatre, The Goodman Theatre,
Paul Tazewell
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Sun-Maid Sun-Maid Growers of California is a privately owned American cooperative of raisin growers headquartered in Kingsburg, California. Sun-Maid is the largest raisin and dried fruit processor in the world. As a cooperative, Sun-Maid is made up of approximately 850 family farmers who grow raisin grapes within radius of the processing plant. Sun-Maid also sources dried fruit beyond this geographical area. In 2012, Sun-Maid celebrated its 100th anniversary as a grower cooperative. Sun-Maid raisins are packaged in a red box featuring the iconic “Sun-Maid Girl” wearing a red sunbonnet and holding a tray of fresh grapes. Sun-Maid raisins are grown
Sun-Maid
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as appearing in wall paintings, many specimens have been found in Egyptian tombs as funerary offerings. In Greece and Crete, figs grew very readily and they were the staple of poor and rich alike, particularly in their dried form. Grape cultivation first began in Armenia and the eastern regions of the Mediterranean in the 4th century BC. Here, raisins were manufactured by burying grapes in the desert sun. Very quickly, viticulture and raisin production spread across northern Africa including Morocco and Tunisia. The Phoenicians and the Egyptians popularized the production of raisins, probably due to the perfect environment for sun
Dried fruit
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of the Messianic Jews' congregation in Haifa. In April 2014, Washington presented at Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS Easter Bonnet Competition with Bryan Cranston, Idina Menzel and Fran Drescher, after raising donations at his Broadway show "A Raisin in the Sun". Denzel Washington Denzel Hayes Washington Jr. (born December 28, 1954) is an American actor, director, and producer. He has received three Golden Globe awards, a Tony Award, and two Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actor for the historical war drama film "Glory" (1989) and Best Actor for his role as a corrupt cop in the crime thriller "Training Day" (2001). Washington
Denzel Washington
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Daniel Petrie Daniel Mannix Petrie (November 26, 1920 – August 22, 2004) was a Canadian television and film director. Petrie was born in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada, the son of Mary Anne (née Campbell) and William Mark Petrie, a soft-drink manufacturer. He moved to the United States in 1945. His signature film "A Raisin in the Sun" (1961), was assigned to him after it was refused to its original director on Broadway, future National Medal of Arts honoree Lloyd Richards, because Richards was black. The movie maintained the award-winning cast and performances it had had on Broadway during its
Daniel Petrie
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roles being Ingrid Mills on "Chicago Fire", Pauline Samson in TV mini-series "Political Animals" and a lawyer in the film "Blue Caprice". Powell has also worked extensively in the theater, starring on Broadway in revivals of "Wilder, Wilder, Wilder" and "On Golden Pond", and off Broadway in productions of "A Raisin in the Sun", "Angela’s Mixtape" and "The Christians" Linda Powell Linda Powell (born April, 1965) is an American actress. Powell was born in Fort Benning, Georgia, the daughter of Alma and Colin Powell, the former United States Secretary of State, National Security Advisor and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs
Linda Powell
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Noma Dumezweni Noma Dumezweni (born 28 July 1969) is an English actress. In 2006, she won an Olivier Award for her role in "A Raisin in the Sun". She stars as Hermione Granger in the original West End and Broadway runs of "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child," which garnered her a second Laurence Olivier Award and a Tony Award nomination. Born in Swaziland, of South African parents, Dumezweni lived in Botswana, Kenya and Uganda. She arrived in England as a refugee on 17 May 1977 with her sister and mother. She first lived in Felixstowe, Suffolk, where she was
Noma Dumezweni
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the 9th Ward of New Orleans. Heavily damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, it has since closed. In 2017, she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. In January 2018, the PBS series American Masters released a new documentary, "Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart," directed by Tracy Heather Strain. Lorraine Hansberry Lorraine Vivian Hansberry (May 19, 1930 – January 12, 1965) was an African-American playwright and writer. Hansberry was the first black female author to have a play performed on Broadway. Her best known work, the play "A Raisin in the Sun", highlights the lives of Black Americans
Lorraine Hansberry
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Lorraine Hansberry Lorraine Vivian Hansberry (May 19, 1930 – January 12, 1965) was an African-American playwright and writer. Hansberry was the first black female author to have a play performed on Broadway. Her best known work, the play "A Raisin in the Sun", highlights the lives of Black Americans living under racial segregation in Chicago. Hansberry's family had struggled against segregation, challenging a restrictive covenant and eventually provoking the Supreme Court case "Hansberry v. Lee". The title of the play was taken from the poem "Harlem" by Langston Hughes: "What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like
Lorraine Hansberry
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Phylicia Rashad Phylicia Rashād ( ) (née Ayers-Allen; June 19, 1948) is an American actress, singer and stage director. She is known for her role as Clair Huxtable on the long-running NBC sitcom "The Cosby Show" (1984–92), which earned her Emmy Award nominations in 1985 and 1986. She was dubbed "The Mother" of the black community at the 2010 NAACP Image Awards. In 2004, Rashad became the first black actress to win the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play, which she won for her role in the revival of "A Raisin in the Sun". Her other Broadway credits
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and inexperienced associates, many of them women, who would learn on the job. Susskind began to branch out, putting together Broadway shows (“Mr. Lincoln”) and feature films ("A Raisin in the Sun"). Talent Associates won more than 20 Emmy awards in the 1960s and 1970s. A few key projects to note: In 1958, Susskind became the host of "Open End", one of the first major TV talk shows. The title refers to the irregular run time - guests would talk until they had nothing left to say. "Open End" ended in 1966, but was replaced by the fixed length "The
Talent Associates
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Corner". She was born Beulah Elizabeth Richardson in Vicksburg, Mississippi; her mother was a seamstress and PTA advocate and her father was a Baptist minister. In 1948, she graduated from Dillard University in New Orleans and two years later moved to New York City. Her career began in 1955 when she portrayed an eighty-four-year-old-grandmother in the off-Broadway show "Take a Giant Step". She often played the role of a mother or grandmother, and continued acting her entire life. She appeared in the original Broadway productions of "Purlie Victorious", "The Miracle Worker", and "A Raisin in the Sun". Richards was nominated
Beah Richards
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by Edward Sobel creates characters that flirt with stereotypes, but become real and believable...This is a bitter satire that makes us laugh while it indicts us." The play opened on Broadway at the Walter Kerr Theatre on April 19, 2012 (in previews starting March 26, 2012) for a 16-week limited engagement. The Off-Broadway cast reprised their roles. The play was nominated for several Tony Awards, and won the one for Best Play. In 2013, the play was staged at the Guthrie Theater (May to June 2013), in rotating repertory with "A Raisin in the Sun" at the Dallas Theater Center,
Clybourne Park
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"A Raisin in the Sun", while working as a housepainter to earn his living. In 1964, he went to New York, teaching acting classes at the Harlem Youth Arts Program and appearing in Off-Broadway plays. In 1969, his theatrical breakthrough came in the Broadway play "Ceremonies in Dark Old Men". In 1970, appearing in Charles Gordone's Pulitzer Prize-winning play "No Place to Be Somebody", he garnered even more attention, winning an Obie Award and several other prizes. From there, he moved on to cinema with two minor roles in "Move" (1970) and "The Organization" (1971), after which he was contacted
Ron O'Neal
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August Wilson role is the gossipy Turnbo in "Jitney" for which he won a Drama Desk Award. He had created the role in the 1996 premiere at the Pittsburgh Public Theater, then honed it (as Wilson was honing the script) in other regional theaters before its arrival Off-Broadway in 2000. But having missed the Tony Award (which is limited to Broadway), he and the core of the cast took "Jitney" to London where it won the 2002 Olivier Award for best new play. In addition, he appeared in "A Raisin in the Sun" and directed "Zooman and the Sign". With
Stephen Henderson (actor)
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the Kingsburg plant serves as the international headquarters of Sun-Maid Growers of California. The original "Sun-Maid Girl" was a real person named Lorraine Collett. She attended the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco as one of several young girls representing the California Associated Raisin Company. The Sun-Maid girls promoted the raisin industry by handing out raisin samples to visitors of the Expo while wearing white blouses with blue piping and blue sunbonnets. A photograph of Collett appeared in the "San Francisco Bulletin" in 1915 and promoted Sun-Maid’s activities at the Exposition. While working at the Expo in San Francisco,
Sun-Maid
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speech with frog-throated sass from the heavy-breathing viols." "The New York Times" also reported that there are "ovations every night at the 46th Street Theatre for 'Raisin'. But they are for the cast, not individual performers. There are no stars... It was at the Arena Theater in Washington, where the play first opened this spring, that Mr. McKayle said he started evolving the ensemble-acting concept." Raisin (musical) Raisin is a musical theatre adaptation of the Lorraine Hansberry play "A Raisin in the Sun", with songs by Judd Woldin and Robert Brittan, and a book by Robert Nemiroff (who was Hansberry's
Raisin (musical)
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Douglas Turner Ward Douglas Turner Ward (born May 5, 1930) is an American playwright, actor, director and theatrical producer best known as a founder and artistic director of the Negro Ensemble Company (NEC). Turner was born in Burnside, Louisiana. His father was Roosevelt Ward and his mother was Dorothy Ward (née Short). Ward is married to Diana Powell Ward. They have a daughter, Elizabeth Ward. As an actor, he made his Broadway debut in a small role in "A Raisin in the Sun". However, his first significant artistic achievement would be as a playwright. "Happy Ending"/"Day of Absence", a program
Douglas Turner Ward
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winning the Tony Award for Best Musical, with the book by Nemiroff, music by Judd Woldin, and lyrics by Robert Britten. "A Raisin in the Sun" was revived on Broadway in 2004 and received a Tony Award nomination for Best Revival of a Play. The cast included Sean Combs ("P Diddy") as Walter Lee Younger Jr., Phylicia Rashad (Tony Award-winner for Best Actress) and Audra McDonald (Tony Award-winner for Best Featured Actress). It was produced for television in 2008 with the same cast, garnering two NAACP Image Awards. Nina Simone first released a song about Hansberry in 1969 called "To
Lorraine Hansberry
10251994
few black actors to have a career. William Marshall was among the artists Philip Rose invited to his apartment for a meeting concerning the Mississippi lynching of Emmett Till. Rose regarded his friendships with Sidney Poitier and Lorraine Hansberry as amongst two of the most important in his life. When he decided to produce "A Raisin in the Sun" for Broadway, the first person he called was Sidney Poitier, not just because he wanted him to because he had no idea where to begin in the casting process. Sidney Poitier got an attorney for him, assisted him in the whole
Philip Rose (theatrical producer)
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Garber and Andrea Martin, "The Film Society" with Cherry Jones and Carole Shelley, "Camino Real" with Ethan Hawke, "A Raisin in the Sun" with Ruben Santiago-Hudson and Viola Davis, "Hot L Baltimore" with Sam Rockwell and "As You Like It" with Gwyneth Paltrow. In 2002, the Williamstown Theatre Festival was the recipient of the Regional Theatre Tony Award. On January 1, 2005 Ritchie joined Center Theatre Group as artistic director. In his first four seasons at CTG, he premiered the musicals "The Drowsy Chaperone", "Curtains", "13" and "9 to 5: The Musical" (all of which moved to Broadway and received
Michael Ritchie (artistic director)
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investor, put in another $100,000 to keep it going and everyone agreed to royalty cuts until the production's cost—about $1.1 million—was recouped...By the eighth week, we were selling out." The Broadway production moved to The Broadway Theatre on May 25, 1977, and closed on January 28, 1979, after four years and 1,672 performances. Along with other musicals including "Purlie" (1971) and "Raisin" (1974), "The Wiz" was a breakthrough for Broadway, a large-scale big-budget musical featuring an all-black cast. It laid the foundation for later African-American hits such as "Bubbling Brown Sugar", "Dreamgirls" and "Duke Ellington's Sophisticated Ladies". The musical toured
The Wiz
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new WB show "Reba" and continued with the show, making three appearances in season one. The following year, Carter made two appearances on "Ally McBeal". The following year had her rehearsing for a production of "Raisin", a stage musical of "A Raisin in the Sun" in Long Beach, California, and filming a movie, "Swing". Carter's final onscreen appearance was in the comedy film "Back by Midnight". It was released in 2005, two years after her death. Carter self-identified as Pentecostal. After "Gimme a Break!" began, Carter's life took a turbulent turn. She attempted suicide in the early 1980s and entered
Nell Carter
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following year, for "Gem of the Ocean". Several Black women have won in the Best Actress (Musical) category, including the late Virginia Capers, who won in 1973 for her portrayal of Lena in the musical adaptation of Hansberry's play, entitled "Raisin". Rashad also won the 2004 Drama Desk award for Best Actress in a Play for "A Raisin in the Sun" by tying (split award) with Viola Davis for the play "Intimate Apparel". In 2007, Rashad made her directorial debut with the Seattle Repertory Theatre's production of August Wilson’s "Gem of the Ocean". More recently, in early 2014 Rashad directed
Phylicia Rashad
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for the Emmy Award for Outstanding Made For Television Movie but lost to "Recount". Phylicia Rashad was nominated Outstanding Lead Actress In A Miniseries Or A Movie but lost to Laura Linney for "John Adams". Audra McDonald was nominated Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Miniseries Or A Movie but lost to Eileen Atkins for "Cranford". A Raisin in the Sun (2008 film) A Raisin in the Sun is a 2008 American made-for-television film directed by Kenny Leon and starring Sean Combs, Audra McDonald, Phylicia Rashad, and Sanaa Lathan reprising their roles from the 2004 revival which was also directed by
A Raisin in the Sun (2008 film)
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and slightly dangerous, but they believe that they can succeed through optimism, determination, and remaining together as a family. Ruby Dee won the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress. Both Poitier and MacNeil were nominated for Golden Globe Awards, and director Petrie received a special "Gary Cooper Award" at the 1961 Cannes Film Festival. A Raisin in the Sun (1961 film) A Raisin in the Sun is a 1961 drama film directed by Daniel Petrie and starring Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, Claudia McNeil, Diana Sands, Roy Glenn, and Louis Gossett Jr. (in his film debut), and adapted
A Raisin in the Sun (1961 film)
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Fresno as the rail stop, Fresno Station. Depots in surrounding communities soon followed. As the railroads expanded, so too did the area surrounding Fresno Station, attracting farmers eager to grow agricultural products to satisfy the increasing demand from faraway markets. Once raisins were established as a marketable crop which grew and dried well under the Californian sun, raisin grape-growing areas expanded rapidly in the late 19th century. The earliest successful efforts to form a cooperative business by raisin growers began in 1898. With community support, the California Associated Raisin Company was established in 1912. In 1915, the brand name Sun-Maid,
Sun-Maid
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small part of the reason. Ms. McDonald is heartbreaking as Ruth, desperate to understand her husband's descent into misery, and Mr. Combs, who portrays that husband, delivers a sterling performance." Joanne Ostrow of the "Denver Post" said, "Overall, this "Raisin" is a proud, important addition to the history of stage adaptations for TV, one that could touch many more millions of people than ever saw the play, thanks both to its star power and the reach of the medium." In "Entertainment Weekly", Ken Tucker rated the production B+ and called it "a model of subtle adaptation." The film was nominated
A Raisin in the Sun (2008 film)
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a child performer until age 6. At age 10, after performing a Mozart concerto with the Chicago Symphony, she won a scholarship to the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, and moved there with her mother. Margaret Harris earned undergraduate and master's degrees, with highest honors, from the Juilliard School. In 1970, she took over the role of musical director for the Broadway production of "Hair", conducting an orchestra of seven older male musicians. Later she worked on the Broadway musical adaptations "Raisin" and "Two Gentlemen of Verona", among other shows. She moved between popular and classical contexts. Among her
Margaret Rosezarian Harris
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revelatory story." Van Der Sluijs went on to direct for Arcola Theatre's Grimeborn Festival, and was awarded an inaugural TS Eliot Exchange bursary between the Old Vic Theatre and the Public Theater New York City. Van Der Sluijs has directed for a range of venues and companies in the Netherlands, often directing Dutch language premieres of British and American plays. He directed the first Dutch production of Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun", for which production company Well Made Productions won the 2017 Amsterdam Award for the Arts, as well as its response play "Beneatha's Place" by Kwame Kwei-Armah
Teunkie Van Der Sluijs
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to make the medieval Cypriot wine Commandaria, which is still produced today. Various Mediterranean raisin wines were described in the first century AD by Columella and Pliny the Elder. Pliny uses the Greek term for honey wine for the following raisin wine, "The grapes are left on the vine to dry in the sun...It is made by drying grapes in the sun, and then placing them for seven days in a closed place upon hurdles, some seven feet from the ground, care being taken to protect them at night from the dews: on the eighth day they are trodden out:
Straw wine
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higher antioxidant capacity than sun-dried black raisins do. Raisin A raisin is a dried grape. Raisins are produced in many regions of the world and may be eaten raw or used in cooking, baking, and brewing. In the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, and Australia, the word "raisin" is reserved for the dark-colored dried large grape, with "sultana" being a golden-colored dried grape, and "currant" being a dried small Black Corinth seedless grape. The word "raisin" dates back to Middle English and is a loanword from Old French; in modern French, "raisin" means "grape", while a dried grape is a
Raisin
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was his first Broadway production, followed by "I'm Solomon" (1969) and "Dr. Jazz" (1975). McKayle was the director and choreographer of "Raisin" (1974) and was awarded a Tony for the best musical. He was responsible for the entire concept, staging and choreography of "Sophisticated Ladies" (1981), which has won numerous awards. Creating choreography for celebrities led to his appearances in popular television shows such as "The Bill Cosby Show" and "The Ed Sullivan Show". McKayle's work was broadcast on every major TV network from 1951 to 1985. He has also choreographed for films including "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" (1970), "The Great
Donald McKayle
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musical began a pre-Broadway tryout on May 30, 1973 at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C.. It premiered on Broadway at the 46th Street Theatre on October 18, 1973, transferred to the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on January 13, 1975, and closed on December 8, 1975 after 847 performances. Donald McKayle was the director and choreographer, and the cast featured Virginia Capers as Lena, Joe Morton as Walter, Ernestine Jackson as Ruth, Debbie Allen as Beneatha, Ralph Carter as Travis, Helen Martin as Mrs. Johnson, and Ted Ross as Bobo. Capers later starred in the national tour. The production won the Tony
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and the medium. In the 1980s she played the role of a mixed-race "diva" in the primetime soap opera "Dynasty". Carroll is the recipient of numerous stage and screen nominations and awards, including the Golden Globe Award for "Best Actress In A Television Series" in 1968. She received an Academy Award for Best Actress nomination for the 1974 film "Claudine". A breast cancer survivor and activist, Carroll was scheduled to return to the Broadway stage in the 2014 revival of "A Raisin in the Sun" as Mama, but withdrew prior to opening citing the demands of the rehearsal and performance
Diahann Carroll