Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company
A Raisin in the Sun: A Community Read
Sign up at the door to read a part in Lorraine Hansberry’s classic drama and the inspiration for Woolly’s upcoming production – Clybourne Park.
Saturday, Mar 6 at 4:30 PM
Lab II
Free
For Audiences ages 13 and up.

In conjunction with Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company’s upcoming production of Bruce Norris’ Clybourne Park (March 15–April 11), the theatre has created a variety of opportunities to explore the play’s sources of inspiration, investigate the social and political issues it tackles, and wrestle with the implications to the changing urban landscape in DC. Woolly is delighted to partner with Intersections in offering one of these events – A Raisin in the Sun: A Community Read. This event puts a book-club spin on the staged-reading format: everyone who attends the Community Read is encouraged to bring a copy of Lorraine Hansberry’s play with them and whoever wishes to read aloud signs up at the door for a character and scene. Attendees can participate by reading aloud, reading along, or sitting back and listening. The reading will be followed by a facilitated dialogue exploring reactions to the play, and its relevance to our changing city.

A Raisin in the Sun was an initial point of inspiration for playwright Bruce Norris in writing Clybourne Park. The play explores how racism and gentrification have evolved over the past half-century in America by imagining the conflicts surrounding the purchase of a house in a white neighborhood in the 1950s by an African American family, and then the re-design of that house in “post-racial” 2010. The setting of Clybourne Park, and the house the action revolves around, is the one purchased by Mama for the Younger Family in A Raisin in the Sun; one of the characters from the Raisin features prominently in the first act of Clybourne.

As part of its 30^th Anniversary Woolly Mammoth is exploring the way it intersects with the city and its citizens, and working to create increasingly more connections between the theatre and civic dialogue. A Raisin in the Sun: A Community Read is just one of many different programs the theatre is offering. For more information on what Woolly Mammoth is up to, or for details on Clybourne Park, visit woollymammoth.net, or contact Rachel Grossman, Connectivity Director, via rachel-at-woollymammoth.net or 202-289-2443, ext 284.

A Raisin in the Sun: A Community Read is a free and open event.