In honor of our RAISIN CYCLE plays and the conversation they knit around the palimpsest of RAISIN IN THE SUN, check out this marvelous instance of textual “riffing.”
(via egoetschius)
The Thaumaturgy Department
thaumaturg
Main Entry: thau·ma·turg
Pronunciation: \ˈthȯ-mə-ˌtərj\
Function: noun
Etymology: French, from New Latin thaumaturgus, from Greek thaumatourgos working miracles, from thaumat-, thauma miracle + ergon work — more at Theater, Work
Main Entry: thau·ma·turg
Pronunciation: \ˈthȯ-mə-ˌtərj\
Function: noun
Etymology: French, from New Latin thaumaturgus, from Greek thaumatourgos working miracles, from thaumat-, thauma miracle + ergon work — more at Theater, Work
The official blog of the Dramaturgy Department at Baltimore's CENTERSTAGE. For posts related to our current and upcoming shows, click the links to the right. Alternatively, you could begin at the beginning, and explore our posts in chronological order.
The Sardauna of Sokoto, the Emir of Katsina and members of the High court of Justice of the Northern Region of Nigeria, Kaduna, Nigeria, by Eliot Elisofon, 1959
More backdrop for BENEATHA’S PLACE.
(via nigerianostalgia)
Students marching at Nigeria’s Independence day Celebration , Lagos 1960
Vintage Nigerian photos
Background for act 1 of BENEATHA’S PLACE.
“ Discussion in America means dissent.
James Thurber, American humorist and essayist
“ Well, the first thing is that truth and power for me form an antithesis, an antagonism, which will hardly ever be resolved. I can define in fact, can simplify the history of human society, the evolution of human society, as a contest between power and freedom.
Wole Soyinka, Nigerian playwright, poet, and author
“
Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.
(America never was America to me.)
Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.
(It never was America to me.)
O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.
(There’s never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this “homeland of the free.”)
Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?
“Let American Be America Again” by Langston Hughes
- prepping lobby quotes for the RAISIN CYCLE, rep productions of Clybourne Park and the world premiere of Beneatha’s Place.
“
Wise I
WHYS (Nobody Knows
The Trouble I Seen)
Traditional
If you ever find
yourself, some where
lost and surrounded
by enemies
who won’t let you
speak in your own language
who destroy your statues
& instruments, who ban
your omm bomm ba boom
then you are in trouble
deep trouble
they ban your
own boom ba boom
you in deep deep
trouble
humph!
probably take you several hundred years
to get
out!
RACE - THE POWER OF AN ILLUSION
Transcript from episode 1 (of 3) in a brilliant series of conversations & videos from California Newsreel. Well worth the perusal. Here, they’re informing the conversation around upcoming Raisin Cycle.
Tracie Thoms goes natural for 'Good Hair'
Baltimore native and actress Tracie Thoms shifts gears to just be herself in ‘Good Hair’
Here (from a Michael Sragow piece in the Baltimore Sun) is a lovely tie-in with CENTERSTAGE’s upcoming Raisin Cycle. A few season’s back, Tracie Thoms played Beneatha in our production of Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun. A local teen who came to see that performance, now a special education teacher in Baltimore, recalls saying at the end of Act 1, “She’s going to let her hair go natural.” Now, Kwame Kwei-Armah has imagined the future life of that character in Beneatha’s Place — traveling to Nigeria, becoming a groundbreaking academic back in the US — and Thoms, post-Raisin, went on to feature prominently in Chris Rock’s documentary “Good Hair.” Advocating for, yes — Natural Hair. Circle complete. Have a good day.
Nigerian market scene
1970s
Vintage Nigerian photos
BENEATHA’S PLACE, kwame kwei-armah’s rumination on the aftermath of hansberry’s RAISIN IN THE SUN, takes place entirely in Lagos, Nigeria…
#CSRaisin #newplay
Various areas of Lagos state
1950s-1960s
Vintage Nigerian photos
prepping for kwame’s BENEATHA’S PLACE, set entirely in Lagos, Nigeria - pictured here. #newplay #CSRaisin
Preserving (and Protecting) Pride of Place
A short reflection on Chicago’s historic bungalows - in light of RAISIN IN THE SUN, CLYBOURNE PARK, and BENEATHA’S PLACE (collectively the RAISIN CYCLE at CENTERSTAGE). #CSRaisin
Hansberry family house, Chicago’s South Side; source of conflict, center of legal battles, and inspiration for A RAISIN IN THE SUN. Fitting sign.
1960 demographic map of Chicago, against which take place RAISIN IN THE SUN, CLYBOURNE PARK, and BENEATHA’S PLACE, the 3 pieces of #CSRaisin RAISIN CYCLE at centerstage.
