Circle Players Opens 2011 season with Hansberry's A RAISIN IN THE SUN, Closes 1/23

Nashville's Circle Players opens the 2011 half of its current season with a Clay Hillwig-directed revival of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, the classic story of a working-class black family struggling to make it in Chicago after World War II. The play closes January 23 at the Larry Keeton Theatre in Donelson.

Nominated for four Tony awards when it opened on Broadway in 1959, A Raisin in the Sun was hailed an all-black principal cast, a black director and a black playwright. Its 29-year-old author, Lorraine Hansberry, became the youngest American and the first African-American playwright to win the New York Drama Critics' Best Play of the Year citation.

Hillwig says he is eager to show off his cast of ten actors who he believes is up to the task of presenting this play, which was lauded by The New York Times as a show that "changed American theater forever."

"It's such a rich story," Hillwig says. "It is about family dynamics, about a father and husband who is still trying to grow into manhood, and it gives a strong message about human dignity in the face of serious challenges that this family faces."

A recent widow, Lena Younger (played by Dara Talibah,) 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, played by Michael "Diallo" McLendon, 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.

Educator Dara Talibah, who plays the matriarch in this family of five, played the same role at Tennessee State University 35 years ago when she was a graduate student.

"I remember asking the director back then if I needed padding to make me look more like a mama. This time around, I surely don't need that padding," Talibah said. "In fact, I cringed when they were measuring me for costumes."

For Talibah, this play is meaningful on many levels. She teaches English at Hunters Lane High School and has always had a passion for Hansberry's script, now more so than ever since she is a mother and grandmother. The story resonates with her, she said, because it is about having to deal with being a parent and teaching values, and it deals with lifelong dreams.

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.

In keeping with the theme of the show, Circle Players is partnering with the Tennessee Fair Housing Council, a non-profit organization whose mission is to eradicate housing discrimination in Tennessee (www.tennfairhousing.org).

A Raisin in the Sun runs Friday, January 7, through Sunday, January 23, 2011, at the Larry Keaton Theatre, 108 Donelson Pike. Show times are 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, with Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. Tickets are $15 for adults, $12 for students and seniors ages 60 and up. Children 6 and under attend free. All tickets are $10 on Thursdays. Group discounts are available.

Tickets can be purchased online at www.circleplayers.net or by phone (615) 332-7529. Individual tickets also will be on sale at the box office at the Keeton Theatre one hour before each performance.

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