Sidney Poitier Archives - Broadway Black https://www.broadwayblack.com/tag/sidney-poitier/ When Theatre Goes Dark Thu, 11 Mar 2021 19:52:11 +0000 en hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://i0.wp.com/www.broadwayblack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/cropped-Broadway-Gold-B-1.png?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 Sidney Poitier Archives - Broadway Black https://www.broadwayblack.com/tag/sidney-poitier/ 32 32 26346292 A Dream Realized: On This Day In Black Theatre History A Raisin In the Sun Debuts on Broadway https://www.broadwayblack.com/a-dream-realized-on-this-day-in-black-theatre-history-a-raisin-in-the-sun-debuts-on-broadway/ https://www.broadwayblack.com/a-dream-realized-on-this-day-in-black-theatre-history-a-raisin-in-the-sun-debuts-on-broadway/#respond Thu, 11 Mar 2021 19:52:11 +0000 https://www.broadwayblack.com/?p=25737 Today marks the 62nd anniversary of the Broadway debut of Lorraine Hansberry’s landmark play A Raisin In the Sun. It was on this date that history was made as Hansberry was the first African American woman to have her play produced and performed on Broadway; it was also the first Broadway play to be directed […]

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Friedman-Abeles/New York Public Library

Today marks the 62nd anniversary of the Broadway debut of Lorraine Hansberry’s landmark play A Raisin In the Sun. It was on this date that history was made as Hansberry was the first African American woman to have her play produced and performed on Broadway; it was also the first Broadway play to be directed by a Black person (Lloyd Richards). It opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theater (and later moved to the Belasco Theater) on March 11, 1959, and played for a total of 530 performances before closing on June 25, 1960.

The play centers around the Youngers: a family of five that lives in a 2-bedroom apartment on the Southside of Chicago. Set to the backdrop of post-WWII, the family’s pursuit of success is driven by the idealization of the American dream; often thwarted by the consequential effects of racism, cultural appropriation and identity, and generational differences. Hansberry gives the reader, and oftentimes the performer, an eye-opening look into the Black experience in America with questions of freedom – educational and economic – ruling the conversation.

The play echoes many of the circumstances and accounts of the playwright’s family from the 1940 Supreme Court case of Hansberry v. Lee, which gave them a voice in the judicial system to fight against racial discrimination in the housing market.  Inspired by that, she wrote parts of her truth through the language of a family who only wanted their slice of the American pie; a slice that would feed their spirits in a world that starved them of their identity. 

A Raisin In the Sun has seen a long history on Broadway and around the world. After the original production was nominated in 1960 for four Tony Awards, the story became a universal tale of hope and success. The original production starred Hollywood leading man Sidney Poitier (later succeeded by Ossie Davis), Ruby Dee, Claudia McNeil, Diana Sands, Louis Gossett, Ivan Dixon, Lonne Elder III, John Fiedler, Glynn Turman, and Ed Hall. Multiple iterations of Hansberry’s classic have graced the stage and screen over the last 62 years: 

1961 film starring the original Broadway cast. 

Raisin (a musical based on A Raisin In the Sun) debuted on Broadway in 1973. The book was written by Hansberry’s former husband and starred Joe Morton, Debbie Allen, Virginia Capers (Tony winner for Lead Actress in a Musical), Ernestine Jackson, and Ralph Carter. It also won the Tony Award for Best Musical. 

1989 tv film starring Danny Glover and Esther Rolle.

2004 Broadway revival starring Sean Combs, Audra McDonald (Tony winner for Best Featured Actress in a Play), Sanaa Lathan, and Phylicia Rashad (Tony winner for Best Actress in a Play; also the first Black woman to win this award).

2008 tv movie event starring many of the leads of the 2004 Broadway revival. 

2014 Broadway revival at the Ethel Barrymore Theater (where it originally played in 1959) starring Denzel Washington, Sophie Okonedo (Tony winner for Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play), Anika Noni Rose, and LaTanya Richardson Jackson. The production also won the Tonys for Best Revival of a Play and Best Direction for Kenny Leon (who also directed the 2008 tv movie). 

The title was inspired by the Langston Hughes poem “Harlem,” which starts out with “what happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?” It is the hope in the midst of suffering and the strength in the midst of pain that makes this classic theatre work a blessing to the arts community.

In honor of Women’s History Month, Broadway Black honors Lorraine Hansberry. Your dream is a gift to us all.

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]]> https://www.broadwayblack.com/a-dream-realized-on-this-day-in-black-theatre-history-a-raisin-in-the-sun-debuts-on-broadway/feed/ 0 25737 Arthur French Honored with the Paul Robeson Citation Award https://www.broadwayblack.com/arthur-french-honored-paul-robeson-citation-award/ https://www.broadwayblack.com/arthur-french-honored-paul-robeson-citation-award/#respond Sat, 17 Oct 2015 21:09:11 +0000 http://broadwayblack.com/?p=10793 Arthur French is best known for his work as both a Broadway Actor and producer. With a career spanning over fifty years, French has been in several Broadway productions such as The Trip to Bountiful, Dividing the Estate, Mule Bone, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Design for Living, You Can’t Take it With You, Death of a […]

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]]> Arthur French is best known for his work as both a Broadway Actor and producer. With a career spanning over fifty years, French has been in several Broadway productions such as The Trip to Bountiful, Dividing the Estate, Mule Bone, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Design for Living, You Can’t Take it With You, Death of a Salesman, The Iceman Cometh, The River Niger, Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death and All God’s Chillun Got Wings.

Born and raised in New York, French began his career in community theater. It wasn’t long before he was also performing in street plays in Harlem for Amiri Baraka’s Black Arts Repertory Theater. In 1967 French was one of the founding members of the Negro Ensemble Company. His career however, was not limited to theater. He also has appeared in such notable films as “Malcolm X”, “Crooklyn”, “Car Wash”, “Round Midnight”and “Kinsey”, and on television programs such as “Law and Order”.

In light of his contributions to theatre, Actor’s Equity Association has named him the 2015 recipient of the Paul Robeson Citation award.

French joins other notable recipients of the award such as Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, Maya Angelou and Sidney Poitier, among others. According to the website,

Created in 1971, the award honors individuals or organizations that best exemplify and practice the principles to which Mr. Robeson devoted his life:  dedication to the universal brotherhood of all humankind, commitment to the freedom of conscience and of expression, belief in the artist’s responsibility to society, respect for the dignity of the individual and concern for and service to all humans of any race or nationality.

Actors’ Equity Association is the U.S. labor union that represents more than 50,000 Actors and Stage Managers. Equity seeks to foster the art of live theatre as an essential component of society and advances the careers of its members by negotiating wages, working conditions and providing a wide range of benefits, including health and pension plans.  Actor’s Equity Association has committed to “…present annual citations to the individual or organization that, during the preceding year or years, best exemplified and practiced the principles and ideals of the great humanitarian, Paul Robeson.”

French will be presented with the award at 2:00 pm on Friday, October 16, 2015 at the Eastern Regional Membership Meeting of Actors’ Equity Association.  We are thrilled to express our appreciation to Arthur French for his contribution to Black Broadway and our congratulations on receiving this well deserved award!

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]]> https://www.broadwayblack.com/arthur-french-honored-paul-robeson-citation-award/feed/ 0 10793 Hollywood Roundtable Then & Now: Social Justice & Creating Art https://www.broadwayblack.com/hollywood-roundtable-now-social-justice-creating-art/ https://www.broadwayblack.com/hollywood-roundtable-now-social-justice-creating-art/#respond Thu, 25 Jun 2015 15:27:05 +0000 http://broadwayblack.com/?p=7253 With all that is going on in America today it’s hard to forget that some of the same issues we are fighting now were being fought 50 years ago. While the entertainment industry is well-known for serving as an escapism for some people, the industry has its fair share of social justice activists who tackle […]

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]]> With all that is going on in America today it’s hard to forget that some of the same issues we are fighting now were being fought 50 years ago. While the entertainment industry is well-known for serving as an escapism for some people, the industry has its fair share of social justice activists who tackle real world issues. Not only for the equality of all people everywhere, but also in their own specific acting careers.

Being an actor or performer of color was difficult in the 1960s; just ask Harry Belafonte or Lena Horne, and even in 2015 there are still actors of color that face discrimination in this business (Um. Hello? #OscarSoWhite). Take for example Hollywood’s famous roundtable discussions, talks that bring actors from different backgrounds together to engage in candid dialogue. They touch on pressing issues such as racism, sexism, ageism that effect them while navigating the business.

On Aug. 28, 1963 –the same day as Mr. Luther King Jr.’s I Have A Dream speech–Harry Belafonte, Charlton Heston, Sidney Poitier, David Schoenburn, Joseph Manckiewicz, Marlon Brando, and James Baldwin sat down to discuss the meaning of civil rights after have attending the march.

Harry on whether or not he believes America can achieve the dream Martin Luther King Jr. talks about;

“I am not so certain it will be achieved without violence. Because the negro people have conducted themselves non-violently. The 200,000 people that were there today; there were many predictions that one could take book on whether there would be a display of violence by all the extreme factions and whatnot. But the truth of the matter is that the people who came to that gathering today were people in great anguish who come from the Birminghams and come from the Jackson, Mississippi’s and they came there with anguish and with hurt and with dignity and with integrity and it was one of the most orderly displays I’ve ever seen of 200,000 people. If the Bull Conners continue to release the bull dogs on the people as an answer to their legitimate cries, if they continue to use cattle rods to prod them, if they continue to use hoses to whip them through the streets, the human heart, and human body can only contain so much. There must come a point, if  they’re pushed to it, for retaliation. So once again I put the emphasis on who it is that will precipitate it. Because the Negro community, I think I can speak for most of the 20 million Negros are committed to this thing being done non-violently.”

Sidney on his involvement in the movement and the “negro question”;

“Well, yes I am forced to participate because it is my conviction that my country has to successfully negotiate the “negro question.” It is to me not a problem, it’s the question of the negro. The unsettled question of the negro in America, we must as a country successfully negotiate that before we can, with any degree of honesty, try to become eligible for participation in the future. We must negotiate other great questions that face us today. The stamina, the texture, of our endeavor, to solve the negro question will exemplify for me the kind of interest the country as a whole has in doing the things that are necessary for us to be entitled to a future.”

More recently, The Hollywood Reporter released their annul Emmy Roundtable Dramatic Actresses: Viola Davis, Taraji P. Henson, Jessica Lange, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Lizzie Caplan. This particular discussion dealt more with what they faced in Hollywood as black women, where they draw inspiration from and what roles they wanted to take on next. (Someone go ahead and bring a production of Hedda Gabler to Broadway with Viola as Hedda and Taraji as Thea please!!!)

Taraji on what motivates her to take on roles and the iconic Cookie Lyon;

“That’s how I was trained. It’s never been about the money for me. I mean, I went from being an Oscar nominee [forThe Curious Case of Benjamin Button] to No. 10 on the call sheet. I’ve never once thought, “I’m now part of some elite group of actors; I’m never going to do theatre again or do an indie again.” If I fall in love with the role, I don’t care if it’s outside in the parking lot.

Cookie scared the hell out of me. Just before I got the role, I’d said, “F— it all, I’m going back to theatre.” I felt lazy and like I needed to sharpen the tools. So I did theatre at The Pasadena Playhouse. Then my manager said,”You have to read this script.” I’m like, “Hip-hop? Oh my God, what are they trying to do? Fox is going to pick this up? This isn’t HBO?” And then I got nervous and started pacing the floor. “Oh my God, Cookie is bigger than life. You will love her or hate her.” Empire has forced people to have conversations that they were afraid to have. And that is what art is supposed to do. I just didn’t know it was going to shake things up this much!”


Viola what drew her to Annalise Keating and what she would like to do next;

“There was absolutely no precedent for it. I had never seen a 49-year-old, dark-skinned woman who is not a size 2 be a sexualized role in TV or film. I’m a sexual woman, but nothing in my career has ever identified me as a sexualized woman. I was the prototype of the “mommified” role. Then all of a sudden, this part came, and fear would be an understatement. When I saw myself for the first time in the pilot episode, I was mortified. I saw the fake eyelashes and, “Are you kidding me? Who is going to believe this?” And then I thought: “OK, this is your moment to not typecast yourself, to play a woman who is sexualized and do your investigative work to find out who this woman is and put a real woman on TV who’s smack-dab in the midst of this pop fiction.

I’d like to go back to Broadway and revisit [Henrik Ibsen’s] Hedda Gabler at some point. But I mostly want what [actress] Lynn Redgrave said to me once. I did a reading of Agnes of God with her right before she died. She told me she’d left L.A. many years ago, and I asked her why. She said one thing she felt after many years in the business was that her past hadn’t counted for anything. I want to feel like my past has counted for something. I’ve been doing this for 27 years. I’ve performed in basements, churches, off-Broadway. I want the work to reflect my level of gifts and talent. I don’t want it to reflect my color, my sex or my age. That’s what I want most.”

It’s important that these roundtables exist and even more important that people of color are represented in them, letting their voices be heard. We’ve been silenced for so long, it’s extremely inspiring to hear when actors/actresses are using their platform to share their experiences and speak out against injustice. Whether it be in their field or in relation to the current state of America. After all, they are people too, they navigate through this world just the same as we do. Even though they have a bit more glitz and glamor, underneath it all they use their art to inspire and cultivate minds just like art should.

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]]> https://www.broadwayblack.com/hollywood-roundtable-now-social-justice-creating-art/feed/ 0 7253 75th Anniversary of the American Negro Theatre https://www.broadwayblack.com/75th-anniversary-american-negro-theatre/ https://www.broadwayblack.com/75th-anniversary-american-negro-theatre/#comments Mon, 01 Jun 2015 15:48:32 +0000 http://broadwayblack.com/?p=6234 June 5th marks the 75th anniversary of the American Negro Theatre (ANT). Founded in 1940 by Abram Hill, Frederick O’Neal, and other artists in Harlem, ANT was formed to provide work for Black theater professionals in a time where there was little work or recognition to be found in the mainstream arena. They began in […]

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]]> June 5th marks the 75th anniversary of the American Negro Theatre (ANT). Founded in 1940 by Abram Hill, Frederick O’Neal, and other artists in Harlem, ANT was formed to provide work for Black theater professionals in a time where there was little work or recognition to be found in the mainstream arena. They began in the basement of the Harlem Branch of the New York Public Library. By 1945, they went on to the Elks Lodge on West 126th St., which was then called the American Negro Theatre Playhouse. By 1950, ANT moved to its last residence – a loft on West 125th St.

A major focus of ANT was to show a wider array of stories and storytelling that was seldom seen whenever Black artists were on stage. This led to the productions of several original plays as well as adaptations of existing classic and contemporary works for all-Black casts. Their first major success came in 1944 when Anna Lucasta by Phillip Yordan debuted on Broadway starring Hilda Simms and Frederick O’Neal. It was ANT’s first all-Black play with a non-racial theme and went on to a national tour, a production in London, and a film in 1958 starring Eartha Kitt and Sammy Davis, Jr..

Financial issues and artistic difficulties brought the unfortunate demise of ANT by the mid-1950s, yet the legacy and revolutionary spirit had only just begun. The American Negro Theater was the beginning for many amazing artists such as Vinie Burrows, Harry Belafonte, Alice Childress, Ruby Dee, Sidney Poitier, Isabel Sanford, and many other dynamic actors, directors, and playwrights. It is because of these artists that we can do more today. Happy Anniversary!

Schomburg-CenterCheck out the exhibition at The Schomburg Center in celebration of the 75th anniversary of our renowned American Negro Theatre (ANT).

Known to the locals as “The Harlem Library Little Theatre,” the ANT was founded in 1940 as a community space for thespians to work in productions that illustrated the diversity of black life. This exhibition is taken entirely from the Schomburg Collections and highlights the ANT’s stage productions from 1940 through 1949 with photographs, posters, playbills, and news clippings. Images include scenes from successful plays such as Anna Lucasta, studio workshops, and radio broadcasts featuring prominent talent whose careers began at the ANT. The exhibition is located in the Theatre, and is open 10:00 – 6:00, M, F, S, and 10:00 – 8:00, T, W, Th.

Now through January 2016

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture 

515 Malcolm X Boulevard New York, NY, 10037 (917) 275-6975

 

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]]> https://www.broadwayblack.com/75th-anniversary-american-negro-theatre/feed/ 1 6234 On Today: A Raisin In The Sun Opened On Broadway https://www.broadwayblack.com/today-raisin-sun-opened-broadway/ https://www.broadwayblack.com/today-raisin-sun-opened-broadway/#respond Thu, 12 Mar 2015 02:23:02 +0000 http://broadwayblack.com/?p=4927 A RAISIN IN THE SUN Keep your eyes glued to @BroadwayBlack for the rest of the day as we honor #LorraineHansberry and her CLASSIC play #ARaisinInTheSun. — Broadway Black (@BroadwayBlack) March 11, 2015 On this day in #BroadwayBlackHistory, in 1959 — Lorraine Hansberry’s classic #ARaisinInTheSun opened on Broadway. pic.twitter.com/VCABzIJEZG — Broadway Black (@BroadwayBlack) March 11, […]

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A RAISIN IN THE SUN

Keep your eyes glued to @BroadwayBlack for the rest of the day as we honor #LorraineHansberry and her CLASSIC play #ARaisinInTheSun.

— Broadway Black (@BroadwayBlack) March 11, 2015

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]]> https://www.broadwayblack.com/today-raisin-sun-opened-broadway/feed/ 0 4927