Raisin in the Sun - Lorraine Hansberry [5]
Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y.
October 1988
*The late ROBERT NEMIROFF, Lorraine Hansberry’s literary executor, shared a working relationship with the playwright from the time of their marriage in 1953. He was the producer and/or adapter of several of her works, including The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window; To Be Young, Gifted and Black; and Les Blancs. In 1974, his production of the musical Raisin, based on A Raisin in the Sun, won the Tony Award for Best Musical.
1“Willie Loman, Walter Younger, and He Who Must Live,” Village Voice, August 12, 1959.
2“The Significance of Lorraine Hansberry,” Freedomways, Summer 1985.
3A Raisin in the Sun and The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, Vintage Books, 1995.
4Hansberry, To Be Young, Gifted and Black, New American Library, p. 51.
5“Make New Sounds: Studs Terkel Interviews Lorraine Hansberry,” American Theatre, November 1984.
6Much fuller directions for staging purposes are contained in the Samuel French Thirtieth Anniversary acting edition.
7To Be Young, Gifted and Black, p. 120.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
In addition to individuals and institutions recalled above and in the American Playhouse and Broadway credits—and the many others too numerous to record who have contributed to the current revival—I wish especially to thank:
Gene Feist and Todd Haimes of the Roundabout Theatre, without whom what followed could never have been;
Burt D’Lugoff, Howard Hausman, Alan Bomser, and Seymour Baldash, whose support and critical judgment have been invaluable;
Jaki Brown, Toni Livingston, and Josephine Abady, who first dared to dream and then to break the first ground to bring Raisin to television;
Esther Rolle and all in the Roundabout Raisin “family” whose unwavering commitment through three on-again, off-again, touch-and-go years were the rock on which the production stood;
Danny Glover, whose name, alongside Ms. Rolle’s, made the production possible but did not prepare one for the magnificent actuality of his work;
David M. Davis and Lindsay Law of American Playhouse; Ricki Franklin, Phylis Geller, and Samuel J. Paul of KCET/Los Angeles; and David Loxton and WNET/New York—who extended every cooperation and maximum freedom for us to develop and produce the television production as we saw it; and
Producer Chiz Schultz and co-producer Steve Schwartz, who brought to the new incarnation not only impeccable judgment and assured expertise, but an integrity of caring dedication to the playwright’s vision and text that one meets rarely, if ever, at the crossroads of art and commerce.
I regret that there is not the space to name here, too, each of the wonderful actors, understudies, designers, technicians, and staff of both the Roundabout and television productions who do not appear in the Playhouse credits, but whose contributions and spirits are joined to those of their colleagues on screen. I am indebted to them all.
And, finally, two in a place by themselves:
My wife, Jewell Handy Gresham, who has stood unbending through the worst and the best of times, providing light and unfailing inspiration to the vision we share; and
Samuel Liff of the William Morris Agency, without whose personal commitment and extraordinary perseverance going far beyond the professional to a true love of theater and art, much that has happened could never have been.
R.N.
1988
Contents
Cover
Other Books by This Author
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Epigraph
Introduction
Acknowledgments
Act I
Scene One: Friday morning.
Scene Two: The following morning.
Act II
Scene One: Later, the same day.
Scene Two: Friday night, a few weeks later.
Scene Three: Moving day, one week later.
Act III
An hour later.
About the Author
The American