Hansberry’s ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ to come to UNLV

Friday, Jan. 10, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

"A Raisin in the Sun" had its debut on Broadway in 1959 and is considered a landmark in American theater history as the first professionally produced "domestic drama" to focus on urban blacks and their struggle against the limitations of their ghetto home.

Hansberry received the New York Drama Critic Circle Award for Best Play, making history as the first black playwright to receive that award, as well as the youngest playwright so honored.

International theatre professional Dipankar Mukherjee has been brought in as guest director of the UNLV production, Mukherjee has extensive directorial credits and has worked in India, at London's Young Vic, Atlanta's Alliance Theatre and has been the resident director of the renown Guthrie Theatre since 1992.

According to Mukherjee, the upcoming UNLV production is more than an "obligatory nod" to Black History Month.

"Black theater is done so rarely in America," says Mukherjee, "that producing this particular play at any time should be an event."

The Hansberry story is about the Youngers, a hard-working, black family living in Chicago in the 1950s. These were the years before Civil Rights Legislation, a time when real estate "blue lining" made it possible for Black Americans and other minorities to move into white residential areas. In fact, Hansberry's father, Carl Hansberry Sr., brought the issue of housing discrimination to the U.S. Supreme court in Hansberry vs. Lee. He was successful in court, but found insurmountable resistance to its decision in the real world.

Since 1959, "A Raisin in the Sun" has been widely produced across the United States and Europe. In the '60s, it was made into a critically acclaimed film, which introduced Sidney Poitier to the screen, reprising his Broadway performance as the besieged Walter Lee Younger, and garnered special honors from the Cannes Film Festival. It was later adapted into a musical, which ironically had a longer run that te original Broadway production.

Performances of "A Raisin in the Sun" are 8 p.m. Jan. 30-31 and Feb. 1-2, 5-6 and 7-9 at the Judy Bayley Theatre. Matinees are 2 p.m. Feb. 2 and 9.

Tickets are $8, $6 for students, seniors and military. For more information, call 895-3801.