Road To Lorraine

Actors’ Equity Association’s Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Committee will celebrate Black History Month by presenting Road To Lorraine in the Ellington Room at Manhattan Plaza. The event is free and open to the public.

Through scenes and lectures, Road To Lorraine will examine African-American plays that pre-dated Ms. Hansberry’s landmark drama, A Raisin In The Sun. Sometimes overlooked, these works were influential and instrumental in the development of Lorraine Hansberry as a playwright. Although critically lauded when they were originally produced in the 1940’s and 1950’s, these important plays were unfortunately overshadowed by the acclaim for Hansberry’s Raisin.

Eugene Nesmith, Associate Professor of Theatre and English at City College and a freelance director and actor, will discuss the historical and thematic significance and importance of these early groundbreaking plays.

Brief scenes will be performed from:

On Striver’s Row by Abram Hill, a satire about a social-climbing family living on Harlem’s fashionable Striver’s Row, whose daughter refuses to marry the “aristocratic” young man her mother has selected for her.

Trouble In Mind by Alice Childress – Tensions occur among white and black cast members during the rehearsal for a fictitious Broadway show.

Big White Fog by Theodore Ward, concerns the progressive disillusionment of Victor Mason with the Marcus Garvey movement after he loses his life savings.

Our Lan’ also by Ward – a group of freed slaves are given a former plantation after the Civil War. Through political chicanery on the part of northern and southern whites, the land is returned to its original owner.

The evening will culminate with a scene from A Raisin In The Sun and a presentation by Producer and Author Philip Rose regarding the original production of Raisin. Participating directors include Arthur French, Eric Francis Montesa, Herb Foster Quebec and Jocelyn Sawyer. A brief reception will follow the program.