Civic Stages Classic Drama

Thu., Jan. 13, 2000

By Jim Kershner jimkershner@comcast.net

The Reading Stage, the Spokane Civic Theatre’s reader’s theater series, will present Lorraine Hansberry’s powerful 1959 drama, “A Raisin in the Sun,” on Sunday.

This drama, about a ghetto family struggling to find a better life, made Broadway history by being one of the first mainstream plays to deal directly with matters of race in contemporary America.

It was a major Broadway hit with Sidney Poitier, and went on to become a hit 1961 film. It is the only play in the Drama League’s “Best English Language Plays of the Century” to be written by a woman or an African American.

The Reading Stage production is directed by Liz McAlpine, who will also read one of the roles. Other cast members include Bryan Jackson, Yolanda Neufville, A’dell McAlpine, Muleba Kasonga, Krisha Marshall-Neufville, Winto Everette, Joseph King, Austin dePaolo and Peggy Trout.

Tickets are $5 general admission, available at the door only. Showtime is 7 p.m. Sunday in the Firth Chew Studio Theater, in the basement of the Spokane Civic Theatre, 1020 N. Howard.

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