Astoria Performing Arts Center Announces RAISIN, The Musical Creative Team

The Astoria Performing Arts Center (APAC) will present a limited engagement of the Tony Award-winner Raisin this spring. The musical, which won the Best Musical Tony Award in 1973, will return to New York City after a 42-year hiatus from May 4 to May 27, 2017 at Good Shepherd United Methodist Church, 30-44 Crescent St (at 30th Road), Astoria, NY 11102.

Meet the Raisin Creative Team:
Dev Bondarin (Director) - recently celebrated her second anniversary at APAC as the Artistic Director. During her tenure, the company has been nominated for 13 New York Innovative Theater Awards and won three, including Outstanding Production of a Musical for Merrily We Roll Along, which she directed.

Darius Smith (Musical Director)- Recent theater credits include: Futurity (Soho Rep.), Helen Hayes Award nominee for Jelly's Last Jam at Signature Theater (VA).

Tamrin Goldberg (Choreographer)- Recent theater credits include: The Zombies: A Musical (Playwrights Horizon), Tamar of the River (Prospect Theater Company), and the Berkshire Theatre Group's production of Oklahoma.

Also Lawrence E. Moten, III (Set Designer- The Public's Under The Radar Festival, Williamstown Theater Festival), Adam Honoré (Lighting Designer- Mamma Mia! at John W. Engeman Theatre & APAC's The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee), Emma Wilk (Sound Designer- Gorey at The Sheen Center, Associate on The Band's Visit at The Atlantic), Michael Cassara Casting (Casting Director), Jessica Pecharsky (Production Stage Manager), and Vanna Richardson (Assistant Stage Manager).

Raisin is presented by special arrangement with SAMUEL FRENCH, INC.

Raisin is a musical adaptation of Lorraine Hansberry's revolutionary A Raisin in the Sun, and has a book co-written by the executor of her literary estate, Robert Nemiroff. In segregated 1950's Chicago, Walter Lee Younger and his mother, Lena, fight over the spending of insurance money. He wants to start a business with friends, while she is eager to move the family out of the South Side and into Clybourne Park. Pulsing with the musical beat of the city, Raisin depicts a black family's struggle in the face of change.

Raisin won the 1974 Tony Award for Best Musical, a Grammy Award for Best Score, and a national tour followed. APAC's production will be the first time the show has been fully produced in New York City since its initial Broadway run.

Astoria Performing Arts Center presents Raisin

May 4-27, 2017

Book by Robert Nemiroff and Charlotte Zaltzberg

Music by Judd Woldin

Lyrics by Robert Brittan

Based on Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

Directed by Dev Bondarin

Tickets: $18 General / $12 Students / Tickets are on sale now at: www.apacny.org

About Astoria Performing Arts Center:
"Adventurous theater in Astoria," The New York Times calls the award-winning Astoria Performing Arts Center (APAC), a not-for-profit organization founded in 2001. APAC's mission is to bring high-quality theater to Astoria and Western Queens, and to support local youth and senior citizens through community programs at schools, senior centers and our performance venue.

The critically acclaimed organization provides quality mainstage musicals and plays to the diverse Western Queens community. To date, APAC has received 41 New York Innovative Theatre Award nominations and six wins (including three for Outstanding Musical Production for Merrily We Roll Along, Allegro, and Children of Eden), as well as an Off-Off Broadway Theatre Review Award for Outstanding Production of a Musical (Is There Life After High School?). APAC was also the recipient of the 2012 Caffe Cino Fellowship Award.