'A Raisin in the Sun' to Bring to Life Award-Winning Paradigm-Shifting Family Drama

UPDATE

DUBUQUE, Iowa - The University of Dubuque Heritage Center's 2021-2022 Live at Heritage Center Performing Arts Series performance of "A Raisin in the Sun" has been canceled after a positive COVID-19 test among the cast. The performance was scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 26, 2022.

Tickets purchased by UD students will be automatically refunded. All other patrons, please turn your ticket(s) into the Farber Box Office for a tax-deductible donation to Heritage Center, account credit for future CenterStage Series events at Heritage Center, or a credit card or check refund.

ORIGINAL

DUBUQUE, Iowa - National Players, America's longest running touring theatre company, will perform A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 26, 2022, in John and Alice Butler Hall, Heritage Center as part of the ninth annual Live at Heritage Center Performing Arts Series.

Set "sometime between World War II and now," A Raisin in the Sun explores themes of family and dreams through the Younger family, a Black American family on the Southside of Chicago mourning the loss of their patriarch, Big Walter. With his death comes a life insurance payout of $10,000 - a life changing sum for the Youngers.

National Players brings to life this timely classic in hopes to inspire audiences to hold onto their dreams, no matter the difficulties they face.

"I hope audiences walk away from Raisin with an understanding of how fraught dreams can be for families struggling against systemic racism. Even at Hansberry's joyous conclusion, the Youngers and other families like them will have to continue fighting to keep their dreams alive. May their tenacity in the face of adversity inspire us all to boldly strive towards our own dreams and help others towards theirs along the way," said Director Christopher Michael Richardson.

Richardson is a National Players alum. Since performing with National Players Tour 65, Richardson has gone on to become a DC area actor, director, and teaching artist. He was featured most recently in Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus: the Musical at the Kennedy Center and Gun and Powder at Signature Theatre. Richardson is also a 2020 recipient of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Fellowship Grant.

National Players is an entirely self-contained and self-sustaining tour, meaning that the 10-member ensemble who act in the plays also serve as the tour's stagehands, electricians, truck drivers, wardrobe crew, and much more. It is a program of Olney Theatre Center, a professional, regional theatre outside of Washington, DC, in Montgomery County, Maryland.

This presentation is made possible, in part, through support from the William P. Woodward Visiting-Artist-in-Residence Endowment.

A Raisin in the Sun is part of UD's Captain Robert L. Martin Black Heritage Tribute program initiative.

Tickets for A Raisin in the Sun can be purchased from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday and 90 minutes prior to events at the Farber Box Office, Heritage Center, University of Dubuque, 2255 Bennett Street; by phone at 563.585.SHOW; or online at www.dbq.edu/HeritageCenter.