Dawn Ursula to Lead the Cast of Arena Stage's A Raisin in the Sun

Arena Stage has announced that two-time Helen Hayes Award winner Dawn Ursula (Arena's Love in Afghanistan) will lead Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun in the role of Ruth Younger. Under the direction of Tazewell Thompson, the production will begin performances March 31 and has been extended one week through May 7. A Raisin in the Sun will be presented in the Fichandler Stage.

Hansberry's classic play follows the members of the Younger family, who are yearning for a better life far from the cramped confines of their Chicago tenement. Hope arrives in the form of an unexpected financial windfall, but family ties are strained when they realize they have differing definitions of the American dream, which dreams get realized and which deferred?

Additional casting will be announced at a later date.

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater, under the leadership of artistic director Molly Smith and executive director Edgar Dobie, is a national center dedicated to American voices and artists. Arena Stage aims to present diverse and groundbreaking work and is committed to commissioning and developing new plays through the American Voices New Play Institute.

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