VIDEO: On This Day, March 11- A RAISIN IN THE SUN Debuts On Broadway

On this day in 1959, Lorraine Hansberry broke new ground as the first Black female playwright to have her work produced on Broadway with the premiere of her seminal drama, A Raisin in the Sun.

After a successful tour, the play premiered on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre before moving to the Belasco Theatre on October 19, 1959, and closed on June 25, 1960, after 530 total performances.

Directed by Lloyd Richards, the cast featured Sidney Poitier as Walter Lee Younger, Ruby Dee as Ruth Younger, Ivan Dixon as Joseph Asagai, Lonne Elder III - Bobo, John Fiedler as Karl Lindner, Louis Gossett as George Murchison, Claudia McNeil as Lena Younger, Diana Sands as Beneatha Younger, Glynn Turman as Travis Younger, and Ed Hall and Douglas Turner as the moving men.

In 1961, the play was adapted as a film featuring the original Broadway cast and a screenplay by Lorraine Hansberry, directed by Daniel Petrie. Ruby Dee won the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress. Both Poitier and McNeil were nominated for Golden Globe Awards, and Petrie received a special "Gary Cooper Award" at the Cannes Film Festival.

What happens to a dream deferred? In the South Side of Chicago, a poor black family struggles to stay afloat as they search for financial stability and a place to call home. Tensions flare as the generations reach for different dreams and prejudice seeps into their lives.