John King News

The Guthrie is proud to present Penumbra Theatre's production of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, directed by Lou Bellamy. A co-production with Arizona Theatre Company and The Cleveland Play House, this presentation marks the 50th anniversary of the show's groundbreaking Broadway opening, and arrives at the Guthrie on the heels of two highly-lauded regional runs in Ohio and Arizona. A Raisin in the Sun previews March 12, opens March 13 and plays through April 11, 2009 on the McGuire Proscenium Stage. Single tickets are priced from $24 to $60, with opening night prices ranging from $49 to $70. Tickets are now on sale through the Guthrie Box Office at 612.377.2224, toll-free 877.44.STAGE, 612.225.6244 (Group Sales) and online at www.guthrietheater.org. A recent widow, Lena Younger (Franchelle Stewart Dorn) wants to use her husband's insurance money to buy a home for her family, freeing them from the cramped tenement in which she, her two children, daughter-in-law and grandson live. Her son, Walter Lee (David Alan Anderson), is determined to invest the money in a business - an opportunity for him to be his own man and not just the driver for his white boss. Lena refuses; in her eyes a house is a sturdy thing to build a dream on, one that can relieve the strains that poverty has put on the family. But when a white representative of the neighborhood 'welcoming committee' presents the Youngers with an offer to buy them out of their home to prevent integration in their community, the dream of the house quickly becomes a nightmare. The title comes from the opening lines of 'Harlem,' a poem by Langston Hughes ('What happens to a dream deferred? / Does it dry up / like a raisin in the sun?'). Throughout the play, the idea of deferred dreams is a prominent theme, as each member of the Younger family attempts to find his or her place amidst a number of difficult situations. While their future neighbors resist the Youngers' move, Walter Lee for the first time begins to value what money can't buy, and in the process achieves a new level of self respect and pride.

ASCAP President and Chairman Marilyn Bergman is pleased to announce that singer-songwriter and 2004 ASCAP Founders Award honoree Jackson Browne will be a special guest at the 3rd annual ASCAP 'I Create Music' EXPO on April 10. Browne will be interviewed and will answer questions from the audience of songwriters and composers. The EXPO will take place April 10-12 at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel in Los Angeles.

New York City Opera's acclaimed series VOX 2008: Showcasing American Composers returns for its ninth season on May 10 and 11, presented at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts at NYU

Deft staging of Kirsten Childs' semi-autobiographical Off-Broadway hit lightly mixes music, humor, insight and heart to deliver a poignant and at times striking message of self-discovery

Intimacy is emphasized over glitz in a quietly stirring production of Kander and Ebb's award-winning musical, 'Kiss of the Spider Woman,' at the SpeakEasy Stage

On August 22nd, Once Around the Sun's Maya Days performed at Splash for Musical Mondays