What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat
Or crust and sugar over— Like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags Like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
LANGSTON HUGHES
The American Playhouse television presentation of A RAISIN IN THE SUN, broadcast on February 1, 1989, was a production of Robert Nemiroff/Jaki Brown/Toni Livingston/Josephine Abady Productions, Fireside Entertainment Corporation, and KCET/Los Angeles in association with WNET/New York.
CAST
(in order of appearance)
RUTH YOUNGER Starletta DuPois
WALTER LEE YOUNGER Danny Glover
TRAVIS YOUNGER Kimble Joyner
BENEATHA YOUNGER Kim Yancey
LENA YOUNGER Esther Rolle
JOSEPH ASAGAI Lou Ferguson
GEORGE MURCHISON Joseph C. Phillips
MRS. JOHNSON Helen Martin
KARL LINDNER John Fiedler
BOBO Stephen Henderson
Ron O.J. Parson,
MOVING MEN Charles Watts
Directed by Bill Duke
Produced by Chiz Schultz Executive Producer Robert Nemiroff
Co-Producer Production Design
Thomas Cariello Steven S. Schwartz
Lighting Design Costume Design
Celia Bryant and Judy Dearing Bill Klages
Music Edited by
Ed Bland Gary Anderson
Camerawork Greg Cook, Gregory Harms, Kenneth A. Patterson
(Based on the 25th Anniversary Stage Production Directed by Harold Scott Produced by The Roundabout Theatre Company, Inc. [Gene Feist/Todd Haimes] and Robert Nemiroff)
Produced for American Playhouse with funds from Public Television Stations, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies. American Playhouse is presented by KCET, SCETV, WGBH, and WNET; Executive Director David M. Davis, Executive Producer Lindsay Law, Director of Program Development Lynn Holst. For KCET: Executive Producer Ricki Franklin, Supervising Producer Samuel J. Paul, Executive in Charge Phylis Geller; with additional funds from the Ambassador International Foundation. For WNET: Executive Producer David Loxton.
A RAISIN IN THE SUN was first presented by Philip Rose and David J. Cogan at the
Ethel Barrymore Theatre, New York City, March 11, 1959, with the
following cast:
(In order of appearance)
RUTH YOUNGER Ruby Dee
TRAVIS YOUNGER Glynn Turman
WALTER LEE YOUNGER (BROTHER) Sidney Poitier
BENEATHA YOUNGER Diana Sands
LENA YOUNGER (MAMA) Claudia McNeil
JOSEPH ASAGAI Ivan Dixon
GEORGE MURCHISON Louis Gossett
KARL LINDNER John Fiedler
BOBO Lonne Elder III
Ed Hall,
MOVING MEN Douglas Turner Ward
Directed by Lloyd Richards
Designed and Lighted by Ralph Alswang
Costumes by Virginia Volland
The action of the play is set in Chicago’s Southside, sometime between World War II and the present.
