Full casting has been revealed for The Public Theater's upcoming Off-Broadway revival of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, set to play the company's Newman Theater September 27–November 6 with an October 19 opening night.
Francois Battiste and Tonya Pinkins will lead the company as Walter Lee Younger and Lena Younger respectively, appearing alongside John Clay III as Joseph Asagai, Calvin Dutton as Bobo, Mister Fitzgerald as George Murchison, Perri Gaffney as Mrs. Johnson, Paige Gilbert as Beneatha Younger, Mandi Masden as Ruth Younger, and Jesse Pennington as Karl Lindner.
Battiste's son, Toussaint Battiste, will alternate in the role of Travis Younger with Camden McKinnon. Rounding out the company as understudies are Skyler Gallun and N'yomi Stewart.
Hansberry investigates the American dream, racism, housing discrimination, and economic strife through the story of a Black family newly arrived in Chicago in this classic play, which premiered on Broadway in 1959.
As previously announced, the revival will be directed by Robert O'Hara. Newly joining the production's creative team are scenic designer Clint Ramos, costume designer Karen Perry, lighting designer Alex Jainchill, sound designer Elisheba Ittloop, sound system designer Will Pickens, hair and wig designer Nikiya Mathis, video designer Brittany Bland, and movement director Rickey Tripp. Prop management will be by Claire M. Kavanah, with Teniece Divya Johnson serving as fight and intimacy director. Clarissa Marie Ligon will be production stage manager and Andie Burns stage manager.
Also planned for the Public's upcoming season are Baldwin and Buckley at Cambridge, which presents the 1965 debate between James Baldwin and William F. Buckley, Jr. while imagining of a conversation between Baldwin and A Raisin in the Sun playwright Hansberry; the New York premiere of Madeline Sayet's Where We Belong; the world premiere of Suzan-Lori Parks' Plays for the Plague Year; a world premiere musical The Harder They Come by Parks and Jimmy Cliff; the world premiere of Ryan J. Haddad's Dark Disabled Stories; the world premiere of Pulitzer winner James Ijames' Good Bones; and Erika Dickerson-Despenza's Shadow/Land, along with a Mobile Unit tour of Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors.
For more, visit PublicTheater.org.
