To Be Young, Gifted and Black, the posthumous work by A Raisin in the Sun playwright Lorraine Hansberry, will receive a one-night-only reading at Broadway's Circle in the Square Theatre September 30 at 7 PM.
The reading, part of the ongoing Circle Series, will feature Courtney Jamison (School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play), Marié Botha, Andrew Goebel, Mary E. Hodges, Sean Boyce Johnson, Deanna Supplee, and Gillian Williams, under the direction of Kimille Howard.
To Be Young, Gifted and Black premiered at the Cherry Lane Theatre January 2, 1969. Compiled by Robert Nemiroff, Hansberry’s former husband and literary executor, the posthumous work traces the extraordinary life of the A Raisin in the Sun playwright through her own words.
At age 29, Hansberry made history with the 1959 Broadway premiere of A Raisin in the Sun, becoming the first black woman to have a play produced on Broadway. She died at age 34 after a battle with pancreatic cancer, just as her second play, The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, was running on Broadway.
The Circle Series is produced by Circle in the Square Theatre School, Pigasus Institute, and Rachel Shuey. Proceeds benefit Circle in the Square Theatre School.
For tickets, visit CircleSeries.org.
