AUTHOR BIOGRAPHYīorn in Chicago in 1930, Lorraine Hansberry was the youngest of four children. This scene would become more crucial as cultural ideas shifted. In addition, the scene in which Beneatha appears with a “natural” haircut was eliminated in the original version primarily because Diana Sands, the actress, was not attractive enough with this haircut to reinforce the point of the scene.
(These scenes are sometimes included in later renditions.) These scenes include Walter’s bedtime conversation with TravisĪnd the family’s interaction with Mrs.
Because audiences are not accustomed to plays of such length, especially by a newcomer, a couple of significant scenes were cut from the original production. Eventually, however, the play did find financial backing, and after staging initial performances in New Haven, Connecticut, it reached Broadway.Ĭompounding the racial challenges the play posed was its length of nearly three hours as it was originally written. Producers hesitated to risk financial involvement in such an unprecedented event, for had the play been less well-written or well-acted, it could have suffered an incredible failure. In part because there were few black playwrights-as well as few black men and women who could attend Broadway productions-the play was hindered by a lack of financial support during its initial production. Within its context, the success of A Raisin in the Sun is particularly stunning. Not only were successful women playwrights rare at the time, but successful young black women playwrights were virtually unheard of. Lorraine Hansberry, the playwright, was an unknown dramatist who achieved unprecedented success when her play became a Broadway sensation. A Raisin in the Sun was first produced in 1959 and anticipates many of the issues which were to divide American culture during the decade of the 1960s.
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