A Raisin in the Sun, whose title is inspired by the book-length poem Montage of a Dream Deferred by Langston Hughes, follows the experiences of the Youngers, a black family seeking self-worth in the fabric of the American Dream in Chicago during the 1950s. The Youngers' lives are turned upside-down when Mama Younger, fulfilling a lifelong dream of owning a home, buys a house in an all-white neighborhood. A representative from the neighborhood tries to buy the Youngers out to save the community from racial tension.
Five decades after the play's premiere on Broadway, A Raisin in the Sun remains relevant today.
"Yes. We've made progress in American race relations," says Gardiner. But she says that there is still plenty of work to be done. Gardiner believes that "there is [a] stagnation in the underbelly of our nation when it comes to race."
And all Americans, Gardiner reminds us, share a complex racial history: "It's important for us to recognize that race in this country will always be a major component of our DNA. And that's what makes it such a beautiful play."
Learn more about the 2012 Rutgers Theater Company season.
A Raisin in the Sun runs from Friday, November 30, through Sunday, December 9. Performances are 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $25 for the general public, $20 for Rutgers alumni and employees and seniors and only $15 for students with valid ID. The Philip J. Levin Theater is in the Mason Gross Performing Arts Center, 85 George Street (between Route 18 and Ryders Lane), on the Douglass Campus of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, in New Brunswick. For more information about any Mason Gross event, and to learn more about the 2012-2013 season at Mason Gross Performing Arts Center and Galleries, visit www.masongross.rutgers.edu, or call the Mason Gross Performing Arts Center ticket office at 732-932-7511.
Rutgers Theater Company
The Mason Gross School of the Art's Theater Arts Department combines rigorous studio class work with a demanding production schedule to provide students with in depth training and practice in theater. The Rutgers Theater Company is a resident company of student actors, designers, directors, playwrights, stage managers, and technicians whose work is guided by master teachers and accomplished professionals. These conservatory students are enrolled in the three year Master of the Fine Arts (MFA) and four year Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) programs. Note the degree program and year in the biographies of the performers and creative staff.
Leah C. Gardiner (Director) received a 2011 Obie Award for her direction of born bad (American premiere, Soho Rep). She recently re-staged the Broadway production of The Normal Heart (Arena Stage, American Conservatory Theater). Leah directed the national tour of Wit (Kennedy Center, Ordway), Sucker Punch (U.S. Premiere, Studio Theatre); Othello (Houston Shakespeare Festival); Fences (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); Bulrusher (World Premiere and Pulitzer Prize finalist, Urban Stages); Clementine in the Lower Nine (World Premiere, TheatreWorks); Blue Door (World Premiere and Pulitzer Prize finalist, South Coast Repertory); The Last Five Years (Crossroads Theatre Company); Topdog/Underdog (Philadelphia Theatre Company); Birdie Blue (City Theatre); Orange Flower Water (World Premiere, Contemporary American Theatre Festival); The Flag Maker of Market Street (World Premiere, Alabama Shakespeare Festival); A Streetcar Named Desire (Pillsbury House Theatre); Angels in America, Parts I and II (Connecticut Repertory Theatre); among others. Ms. Gardiner holds an M.F.A. in Directing from the Yale School of Drama. Upcoming: Antony and Cleopatra for the Houston Shakespeare Festival.
Tonya Pinkins (Lena Younger [Mama] -- Guest Artist) won 2012 Lucille Lortel and Audelco Award for her performance in Milk Like Sugar. Tonya's performances have been nominated for the Olivier, Jefferson, Helen Hayes, NAACP, Drama League, Whats on Stage, Audience Choice, Soap Opera Digest, and Outer Critics Circle Awards. She is the winner of Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Clarence Derwent, Monarch, Black Theater Alliance, Garland, LA Drama Critics, Audelco, and Obie Awards. She stared in As the World Turns and All My Children. Film: Enchanted, Above the Rim, and Beat Street. TV: Army Wives, 24, and Law and Order. She is the author of GET OVER Yourself: How to Drop the Drama and Claim the Life You Deserve. Follow her on Twitter @tonyapinkins and @getoveryourself and on tonyatology.blogspot. www.tonyapinkins.com
Sharod D. Choyce (Bobo - MFA II) is from Dallas, Texas. Credits include: Alan in Minnesota Moon, Marcus Lycus in A Funny Thing Happened On the Way To The Forum, Messenger of Corinth in Oedipus Rex, and Raymond Isaac in Ain't Gonna Let Nobody. He also wrote and performed a one-man show called The Life of Emmett Till.
Elijah Coleman (Moving Man - MFA I) is from Long Island, New York. He received his BFA in theater and BA in dance at the University of Buffalo. Professional credits: International Canadian and European theater festivals, Theater West Virginia Company, ArtPark Theater Company, Buffalo City Ballet Company, Zodiaque Dance Company.
Kellan Cupid (Travis Younger - 8th Grade) is from West Windsor-Plainsboro, New Jersey via Trinidad, West Indies and attends school in West Windsor-Plainsboro. Kellan started his career as a Public Speaker. He is a member of the New Jersey Orators. Oratorical presentations include: excerpts from the Broadway play Purlie, The Autobiography of Muhammad Ali Michael Jordan and A Message to the Grassroots by Malcolm X.
Cameron Gregg (Karl Lindner - BFA IV) is from Asheville, North Carolina. He was last seen in Rutgers Theater Company's As You Like It, the. His other Rutgers credits include: 2011 Performance Ensemble piece 40N/74W, The Acquisition, Controlling Interest, and Lynette at 3am in the 2010 Sophomore Play Festival.
Aaliyah Muneerah Habeeb (Ruth Younger - MFA III) hails from Kent, Ohio. She received her BA at the University of Pittsburgh. Rutgers Theater credits include; Intimate Apparel (Mayme), Machinal (Stenographer/ensemble), Lady of Fadima (Val), A History of Kites (Desree), and Marat/Sade. Professional credits include an Off-Off Broadway production of Goodness presented by Project Y Theatre Company.
Michael Jacobs (Moving Man - BFA I) is from Detroit, Michigan. His high school credits are Othello in Othello, Harpo in The Color Purple, Ahmad Rashad in Sister Act 2.
Devion Mcarthur (Joseph Asagai - BFA IV) is a native of Chicago, Illinois. He was recently seen as Jacques in As You Like It at Shakespeare's Globe and at Rutgers. Other Rutgers University credits include Controlling Interests, Heart in the Ground, and the 2011 Performance Ensemble production 40N/74W.
Angel Moore (Beneatha Younger - MFA II) is from Cincinnati, Ohio. She received her BA in theater from Alabama State University. Her acting credits include: Antigone (Ismene), Black Nativity (Mary), A Song for Coretta (Gwen), Aint Gonna let Nobody (May Ollie), and Intimate Apparel (Esther). She also directed Like Dreaming, Backwards written by Kellie Powell.
Xavier A. Tippett (Travis Younger - 9th Grade) is a freshman at Middlesex County Vocational Technical School of Performing Arts. He has performed in Grease and The Wizard of Oz with HHH Productions.
Serge Thony (George Murchison - MFA III) is from Brooklyn, New York, and received his BA from the University at Buffalo. Professional Credits include: One Life to Live, Saturday Night Live, All My Children. Rutgers credits include: Satan in The Days of Judas Iscariot, Lincoln in Topdog/Underdog and Sharpton in Fires in the Mirror.
Landon G. Woodson (Walter Lee Younger -- MFA III) is from Passaic, New Jersey and studied religion at Rutgers College. Credits: Booth in TopDog Underdog (Rutgers Theater Company) Romeo in Romeo and Juliet (CoLab Theater) and Roger in Streamers (Rutgers Cabaret Theater).
Ashley Cusack (Set Designer -- MFA II) is from Long Branch, New Jersey. She received her BFA in art and psychology from Caldwell College. Her Rutgers design credits include Lady of Fadima, Pilgrims, and Minnesota Moon. Other recent design credits include: Legally Blonde, My Fair Lady, and Ragtime (Phoenix Productions, Red Bank, New Jersey).
Mandy L. Swing (Costume Designer -- MFA III) was born in San Diego, California. She received a BA in theater from Kent State in 2010. Design credits: Topdog/Underdog, Machinal, Statements After an Arrest, History of Kites, and Any Place But Here (Rutgers University), The Foreigner (Porthouse Theater), Oklahoma! (KSU), and The Glass Menagerie (Oberlin Summer Theater Festival).
Tae Kyung Lee (Lighting Designer -- MFA III) is from Seoul, South Korea. She received her BA in technical/design for theater from Rhode Island College. Her Mason Gross credits include Lighting Design for Topdog/Underdog, The Aliens, A History of Kites, Statements after an Arrest Under the Immorality Act, Reason to be Pretty, and Set Design for Cost of Living, Just a Face, and Assistant Set Design for Machinal.
Latiana Gourzong (Sound Designer -- BFA IV) is from Ocean Township, New Jersey. Rutgers Sound Design credits include: Eurydice, Nathan's Secret Girlfriend, Tracing Nora and Fires in the Mirror. Assistant Sound Design Credits: Machinal, Marat/Sade, and Fen. She is attending Mason Gross School of the Arts for her BFA in technical direction and is the TD on this production of Raisin in the Sun.
Melissa Firlit (Assistant Director) has worked at Theatre Row, Theatre for the New City, Connelly Theatre, Soho Playhouse, The Tank, Bridge Theater, Bushwick Star, Dixon Place, Manhattan Theater Source, Zipper Factory, Mile Square Theatre, Pulse Theatre, FringeNYC, MidTown International Theater Festival, Edinburgh Fringe and Dragon's Egg Artist Residency. Training: MFA Rutgers University, BA University of Hartford and the National Theater Institute.
Allyson Namishia (Stage Manager-MFA III) is originally from Queens, New York. She received her BFA from Western Carolina University. Some of her professional credits are: Greater Tuna, A Little Night Music, Duck Hunter Shoots Angel, Shenandoah, and The Smoke on the Mountain trilogy. Rutgers credits include: Fiction, Machinal, Fabulation, or the Re-education of Undine, and Homemade.
Caption: Serge Thony, as George Murchison, and Angel Moore, as Beneatha. Photo by Larry Levanti.
