Lorraine Vivian Hansberry was born May 19, 1930 in Chicago and raised in a middle-class family. When she was 7 or 8 her family moved to a restricted white neighborhood which was against the law at that time. The Hansberrys had to go to court in order to remain in their home which was vandalized on several occasions.
The production of her play, A Raisin in the Sun catapulted Hansberry into the forefront of the theatre world. She was named most promising playwright of the season by Variety's poll of New York Drama Critics.
The title of the play is based on a line in the Langston Hughes Poem Dream Deferred-What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?
Upon receiving that year's Drama Desk Award, Lorraine Hansberry became the youngest person and the first African-American to win that distinguished honor. In 1961 the film version of the play, starring Sidney Poitier, Claudia McNeil and Ruby Dee opened; Hansberry won a special award at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for a Screen Writer's Guild Award for her screenplay.
A second television adaptation of the play aired in 1989 starring Danny Glover, Esther Rolle, and Kim Yancey.
Check out the original version of the movie:
Check out the trailor for the updated version of the movie starring Sean Combs:
A Raisin in the Sun was chosen as one of the 100 most significant works of the twentieth century in a National Theatre poll of playwrights, actors, directors, journalists, and other theatre professionals. A Raisin in the Sun became the first play by an African American woman produced on Broadway and its revival has been critically acclaimed.
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