Raisin In the Sun.

HANSBERRY, Lorraine; Sidney Poitier; Ruby Dee.

Item Number: 5754

New Haven: Schubert Theatre, 1959.

Original playbill for A Raisin In the Sun, from The Schubert Theatre in New Haven, Connecticul, January 21-24, 1959. This was a few months before the Broadway release of the same play. Signed on the front cover by the following contributors, “My very best wishes Lorraine Hansberry. Also signed by actors, Sidney Poiter, Ruby Dee, Claudia McNeil, Diana Sands, Lonne Elder III, Glynn Turman and Ivan Dixon. Octavo, original wrappers. A Raisin in the Sun was the first play written by a black woman to be produced on Broadway. Hansberry signatures are rare, together with Sidney Poitier and the original caste of this play are rare. A unique piece.

This groundbreaking play starred Sidney Poitier, Claudia McNeil, Ruby Dee and Diana Sands in the Broadway production which opened in 1959. Set on Chicago's South Side, the plot revolves around the divergent dreams and conflicts within three generations of the Younger family: son Walter Lee, his wife Ruth, his sister Beneatha, his son Travis and matriarch Lena, called Mama. When her deceased husband's insurance money comes through, Mama dreams of moving to a new home and a better neighborhood in Chicago. Walter Lee, a chauffeur, has other plans, however: buying a liquor store and being his own man. Beneatha dreams of medical school. The tensions and prejudice they face form this seminal American drama. Winner of the Drama Critic's Award as Best Play of the Year, it has been hailed as a "pivotal play in the history of the American Black theatre" by Newsweek and "a milestone in the American Theatre."