What African American wrote a raisin in the sun?
Lorraine Hansberry
Lorraine Hansberry, Activist and Playwright Discover the life of Lorraine Hansberry, who reported on civil rights for Paul Robeson’s newspaper Freedom and later penned “A Raisin in the Sun.” Learn about her personal life, accomplishments, and untimely death at age 34.
Which is the first play by a Black woman on Broadway?
A Raisin in the Sun
Lorraine Hansberry was an American playwright whose A Raisin in the Sun (1959) was the first drama by an African American woman to be produced on Broadway.
Who was the first African American playwright?
William Wells Brown’s The Escape; or, A Leap for Freedom (1858), was the first Black play published, but the first real success of an African American dramatist was Angelina W. Grimké’s Rachel (1916). Black theatre flourished during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and ’30s.
What was the first black musical?
1921 – Shuffle Along Shuffle Along marked the first full-fledged Broadway musical with an all-black cast, playwright, composer and lyricist. The show was a hit, running for about 484 nights on Broadway, a record at the time, according to The New York Times.
Who was the Best Actor in Raisin in the Sun?
In 1960 A Raisin In The Sun was nominated for four Tony Awards: Best Play – written by Lorraine Hansberry; produced by Philip Rose, David J. Cogan Best Actor in Play – Sidney Poitier
When did Lorraine Hansberry play A Raisin in the Sun?
The play opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on March 11, 1959, and was a great success, having a run of 530 performances. It was the first play produced on Broadway by an African American woman, and Hansberry was the first Black playwright and at 29, the youngest American to win a New York Critics’ Circle award.
Who was the first African American to win a Tony Award?
The play was nominated for four Tony awards and was named the “best play” by the New York Drama Critics’ Circle, making Hansberry the first African-American and youngest person to win the award.
When did A Raisin in the Sun become a musical?
Other iterations followed: A Raisin in the Sun was adapted into a Tony award-winning musical in 1975 ( Raisin) and was filmed for television in 1989 with Esther Rolle as the Younger family matriarch and Danny Glover as Walter. Since then, Hansberry’s most famous work has been twice revived on Broadway this millennium.