Reference

1. Quillrose Roamee L. Nalaza
February 8, 2015
Grade 9- Galileo
YOUR FINAL TASKS
Task 13. Review, Analyze, Reflect!
Title of the Play: “The Raisin in the Sun.”
Name of the Playwright: Lorraine Hansberry
Background of the Playwright:
Lorraine Hansberry was born on May 19, 1930 in Chicago, Illinois.
Hansberry grew up with a keen awareness of African-American history
and the ongoing struggle for civil rights. She was the first black
playwright to create realistic portraits of African-American life. One of
her first play and one of the best known works of her, “A Raisin in the
Sun”, a play about a struggling black family, making her the first
youngest African-American to win a New York Critics Circle award to
have a play in Broadway. Her journey in playwriting ended in January 12,
1965 when she was diagnosed to pancreatic cancer.
Hansberry also wrote The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, Les
Blancs, and To Be Young, Gifted and Black, as well as the posthumously
published works To Be Young, Gifted and Black: An Informal
Autobiography, Lorraine Hansberry: The Collected Last Plays, and The
Movement.
Background of the Play (if any)
A Raisin in the Sun has become a landmark in American literature and
drama. First produced in 1959 when Hansberry was only 29 years old, it
won the Best Play Award of the New York Drama Critics. It has since
been adapted for film, television, and musical theater, and has been
performed thousands of times around the United States, as well as on
stages around the world in over 30 languages.

2. When A Raisin in the Sun opened in March 1959, it met with great
praise from white and black audience members alike. Hansberry used
her new fame to help bring attention to the American civil rights
movement as well as African struggles for independence from
colonialism.
A Raisin in the Sun can be considered a turning point in American art
because it addresses so many issues important during the 1950s in the
United States. The 1950s are widely mocked in modern times as an age
of complacency and conformism, symbolized by the growth of suburbs
and commercial culture that began in that decade.
Discuss how a play differs from other literary forms:
What makes it different from other literary forms is that in a way that
the play is composed of a dramatic genre that discusses many life issues
and circumstances that is present in the time when the dramatist wrote
the play. If we may take a look at the play, it may be simple but all
behinds those simple conversations and issues depicted in the play has
a deep meaning behind it.
What makes it amazing is that the play is written by the dramatist based
on her experiences. The black people of her time face racial challenges,
stereotyping and social status which comprises the beauty of the play.
She took every chance to be a revolutionary not just in everyday life but
also in her literary works. She is able to the deal with the issues of
racism and discrimination while maintaining a thoughtful story about a
family, race and struggling against poverty. She was able to mark a
legacy out from her literary works like A Raisin in the Sun which reveals
a significance context as a lasting literary social criticism.
Quillrose Roamee L. Nalaza
February 8, 2015
Grade 9- Galileo

3. YOUR FINAL TASKS
Task 13. Review, Analyze, Reflect!
Title of the Play: “The Raisin in the Sun.”
Name of the Playwright: Lorraine Hansberry
Background of the Playwright:
Lorraine Hansberry was born on May 19, 1930 in Chicago, Illinois.
Hansberry grew up with a keen awareness of African-American history
and the ongoing struggle for civil rights. She was the first black
playwright to create realistic portraits of African-American life. One of
her first play and one of the best known works of her, “A Raisin in the
Sun”, a play about a struggling black family, making her the first
youngest African-American to win a New York Critics Circle award to
have a play in Broadway. Her journey in playwriting ended in January 12,
1965 when she was diagnosed to pancreatic cancer.
Hansberry also wrote The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, Les
Blancs, and To Be Young, Gifted and Black, as well as the posthumously
published works To Be Young, Gifted and Black: An Informal
Autobiography, Lorraine Hansberry: The Collected Last Plays, and The
Movement.
Background of the Play (if any)
A Raisin in the Sun has become a landmark in American literature and
drama. First produced in 1959 when Hansberry was only 29 years old, it
won the Best Play Award of the New York Drama Critics. It has since
been adapted for film, television, and musical theater, and has been
performed thousands of times around the United States, as well as on
stages around the world in over 30 languages.

4. When A Raisin in the Sun opened in March 1959, it met with great
praise from white and black audience members alike. Hansberry used
her new fame to help bring attention to the American civil rights
movement as well as African struggles for independence from
colonialism.
A Raisin in the Sun can be considered a turning point in American art
because it addresses so many issues important during the 1950s in the
United States. The 1950s are widely mocked in modern times as an age
of complacency and conformism, symbolized by the growth of suburbs
and commercial culture that began in that decade.
Discuss how a play differs from other literary forms:
What makes different a play from the other literary forms is that a play
is consisted of a scripted dialogue between characters and intended for
theatrical performances rather than reading. Plays are performed at a
variety of levels, from Broadway, Off-Broadway, regional theater,
to Community theatre, as well a University or school productions. There
are rare dramatists who have had little preference whether their plays
were performed or read. The term "play" can refer to both the written
works of playwrights and to their complete theatrical performance.
Quillrose Roamee L. Nalaza
February 9, 2015
Grade IX –Galileo Mr. Jay-
ar C. Silva
TASK 13

5. REVIEW, ANALYZE, REFLECT!
TITLE OF THE PLAY: “Clybourne Park”
NAME OF THE PLAYWRIGHT: Bruce Norris
BACKGROUND OF THE PLAYWRIGHT:
Bruce Norris (born May 16, 1960) is an American actor and playwright
associated with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company of Chicago. On April
18, 2011, Norris was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his
play Clybourne Park (2010). The Prize committee citation described the
play as "a powerful work whose memorable characters speak in witty
and perceptive ways to America's sometimes toxic struggle with race
and class consciousness."
BACKGROUND OF THE PLAY:
A spin-off of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, this razor-sharp
new satire takes a jab at race and real estate in a fictional Chicago
neighborhood. The play begins in 1959 as a black family moves into a
white enclave. Act Two takes us back to the same house in 2009 as
gentrification sets in and the roles are reversed. One agile ensemble of
actors play two sets of characters in the play The Washington Post
deemed "one of its feistiest, funniest evenings in years.
A few years ago, Norris used that notion to revisit some of the themes
of Hansberry’s story (which had been inspired by events in her own
family’s history) in his play “Clybourne Park.” In Act I, he imagines Karl,
having failed to persuade the Younger family in “Raisin,” trying next to
convince the white family who has sold them the home to back out of
the deal. Act II takes place in the same room, yet pitches the action
forward 50 years, as gentrification comes to the now-black area and a
white couple wants to tear down the house and build a bigger one in its
place.

6. It also doesn’t settle for the easy optimism of a blind faith in social
progress. “The first act is a tragedy and the second part is a comedy,
because the people in the first act all understand each other much more
than the people do in the second act,” Norris has said -- and it’s
tempting to assume that’s his real point about how things have changed
in the past 50 years. “In the second act everyone makes assumptions.”
-- Marty Hughley
DISCUSS HOW A PLAY DIFFERS FROM OTHER LITERARY FORMS:
What makes different a play from the other literary forms is that a play
is consisted of a scripted dialogue between characters and intended for
theatrical performances rather than reading. Plays are performed at a
variety of levels, from Broadway, Off-Broadway, regional theater,
to Community theatre, as well a University or school productions. There
are rare dramatists who have had little preference whether their plays
were performed or read. The term "play" can refer to both the written
works of playwrights and to their complete theatrical performance.