The first play on Broadway written by a black woman
Witness History
BBC
4.5 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 16 April 2019
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
'A Raisin in the Sun' opened on Broadway in 1959. It had an almost exclusively black cast and a black director too. The playwright, Lorraine Hansberry, based it on her own family's story of being forced out of a white neighbourhood in Chicago. The title is from a poem by African American poet Langston Hughes about a dream deferred - 'does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?'.
Photo: Still from the 1961 film version of the play A Raisin in the Sun featuring Sidney Poitier (Photo by George Rinhart/Corbis via Getty Images)
Audio: With thanks to WFMT radio and the Studs Terkel radio archive.
Transcript
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| 1:09.6 | Hello and welcome to the Witness History Podcast on the BBC World Service with me Claire Bose. |
| 1:16.0 | Today we're going back to 1959 and the opening of a groundbreaking play about race in America. A raisin in the sun had an almost |
| 1:25.1 | exclusively black cast and was the first play on Broadway written by a black |
| 1:30.4 | woman. You have to give a many-sided character. |
| 1:37.0 | In other words, there is no excuse for a stereotype. |
| 1:47.0 | The playwright Lorraine Hansbury was a young woman from Chicago. |
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