Plays In Parking Lots: 'A Raisin In The Sun'
May 17, 2026 3:00 PM –6:00 PM
750 Citadel Dr E
| Colorado Springs, CO | 80909
Admission: Free.
Event Summary
Announcing a new Brave Irene's series: Plays In Parking Lots.
Participants get the joy of reading a play aloud together, and re-imagining our vast greyscapes and sprawl. What would happen if we got rid of parking minimums? Why isn't this asphalt rain permeable? What would our life together be like if half of all these parking lots were orchards, public swimming pools, drop-in health clinics, farms, bike libraries, etc.?
First up, A Raisin In The Sun.
This event is co-hosted by Kai Gaynor.
About the play, from the Chicago Public Library:"A Raisin in the Sun opened at the Barrymore Theatre in New York on March 11, 1959, to great popular and critical success. It was the first play written by an African American to be produced on Broadway and the first to be directed by an African American in over half a century. It ran for 530 performances and won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for best play of the year, edging out plays by Eugene O’Neill and Tennessee Williams. Hansberry was the youngest American, fifth woman and first black to win the award. A Raisin in the Sun marked the turning point for black artists in professional theater.It took about a year for producers Philip Rose and David Cogan to raise enough money from 150 investors to finance the play. They had trouble finding a Broadway theater to stage the play until the success of the out-of-town tryouts in New Haven, Conn., Philadelphia and Chicago. Directed by Lloyd Richards, the original cast included Sidney Poitier, Claudia McNeil, Ruby Dee, Lou Gossett, Glynn Turman and Diana Sands. Ossie Davis later replaced Poitier.The white press applauded the play for not being only a “Negro play” but one that was a universal drama. This implied that the story would be the same if the black characters were replaced with white ones. In part, Hansberry agreed, saying, “I don’t think there is anything more universal in the world than man’s oppression to man.” But she argued that her characters were distinctly 'Negro' and even more specifically from Chicago’s South Side."
Participants get the joy of reading a play aloud together, and re-imagining our vast greyscapes and sprawl. What would happen if we got rid of parking minimums? Why isn't this asphalt rain permeable? What would our life together be like if half of all these parking lots were orchards, public swimming pools, drop-in health clinics, farms, bike libraries, etc.?
First up, A Raisin In The Sun.
This event is co-hosted by Kai Gaynor.
About the play, from the Chicago Public Library:"A Raisin in the Sun opened at the Barrymore Theatre in New York on March 11, 1959, to great popular and critical success. It was the first play written by an African American to be produced on Broadway and the first to be directed by an African American in over half a century. It ran for 530 performances and won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for best play of the year, edging out plays by Eugene O’Neill and Tennessee Williams. Hansberry was the youngest American, fifth woman and first black to win the award. A Raisin in the Sun marked the turning point for black artists in professional theater.It took about a year for producers Philip Rose and David Cogan to raise enough money from 150 investors to finance the play. They had trouble finding a Broadway theater to stage the play until the success of the out-of-town tryouts in New Haven, Conn., Philadelphia and Chicago. Directed by Lloyd Richards, the original cast included Sidney Poitier, Claudia McNeil, Ruby Dee, Lou Gossett, Glynn Turman and Diana Sands. Ossie Davis later replaced Poitier.The white press applauded the play for not being only a “Negro play” but one that was a universal drama. This implied that the story would be the same if the black characters were replaced with white ones. In part, Hansberry agreed, saying, “I don’t think there is anything more universal in the world than man’s oppression to man.” But she argued that her characters were distinctly 'Negro' and even more specifically from Chicago’s South Side."
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Also Occurs On
- Sunday, May 17
Overview
750 Citadel Dr E
| Colorado Springs, CO | 80909
