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AUTHOR Jennings, Caleen Sinnette TITLE "To Be Young, Gifted, and Black." Cue Sheet for Students. INSTITUTION John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, DC SPONS AGENCY Department of Education, Washington, DC. PUB DATE 1996-00-00 NOTE 10p.; Additional funding provided by The Kennedy Center Corporate Fund and The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation. AVAILABLE FROM http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/cuesheet/theater.html. PUB TYPE Guides - Classroom - Learner (051) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Audiences; Black Culture; Black History; Black Leadership; Class Activities; Cultural Activities; Elementary Secondary Education; Playwriting; Production Techniques; *Theater Arts; United States History IDENTIFIERS *Drama in Education; *Hansberry (Lorraine)

ABSTRACT This performance guide is designed for teachers to use with students before and after a performance of "To Be Young, Gifted, and Black." The guide, called a "Cuesheet," contains seven activity sheets for use in class, addressing:(1) To Be Young, Gifted, and Black (a theatrical collage based upon the life and work of the African-American playwright , featuring scenes from her most famous plays, as well as excerpts from her speeches and letters);(2) Lorraine Hansberry: Her Life and Legacy (offering biographical material about Hansberry's life and work);(3) The World of Lorraine Hansberry (looking at important people who influenced Hansberry, and at historical, economic, and social changes that took place during her lifetime and that she was part of); and (4) Before and After the Play (presenting ideas for discussion topics and class activities before and after attending the play). Resources for further exploration are listed. (SR)

Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. "To Be Young, Gifted, and Black." Cue Sheet for Students.

by Ca leen Sinnette Jennings

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality.

Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy.

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foi'-'Students p WELCOME TCL*;COESHEET, one of a series of performance guides published by the in Education Department of the John F. Kennedy Center for the 4 Per-forming Arts, Washington,t D.C. This Cuesheet is designed to be used by teachers and 't students; before and after 008110 attending a performance of .-, To Be Young, Gifted, and Black. Students and teachers may read Cuesheet together. Small groups of students-'may use - le14gigAIDIN

Cuesheet for collaborative tt? activities, and share their work with the_class. What's in Cuesheet?

To Be Young, Gifted, and Black, pages 2-3 Lorraine Hansberry: Her Life and Legacy, pages 4-5 The World of Lorraine Hansberry, pages 6-7 Before and After the Play, page 8

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. The,Kennedy Center. To Be Yetang, Gift and Black A Theatrical Collage

To Be Young, Gifted, and Blackis a theatrical Writer Jim Vogel used both the book and play collage based upon the life and work of the script ofTo Be Young, Gifted, and Blackto African American playwright Lorraine create this adaptation. He notes: COLLAGEan artistic Hansberry. Troupe NY will present this hour- combination of varying "We have a cart of five instead of eight, In long adaptation featuring scenes from and different pieces to cutting the show down to one hour, I -try be Hansberry's most famous plays, as well as create a whole true to Hansberry's viewpoint and her rhythm. excerpts from her speeches and letters. composition The most striking thing about her was her Rather than having one actor play Hansberry, humanity. She was generous, courageous, and each actor in the multi-racial cast of five will outspoken. I want the audience to leave with her speak as Hansberry and play multiple roles. yoke ringing in their ears,"

Scene from the film A in the Sun, 1960. Pictured are (L.

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BEST COPYAVAILABLE LI Director Saundra McClain says her goal is to McClain says she wanted white and black, keep the spirit of Hansberry alive in young male and female actors to get a chance to per- viewers: form Hansberry's words:

"The same things Hansberry protected are going on "Her work speaks to and all today. I want students to see her as a writerfor human beings. She cared so much about black today. She fulfilled her dreams in a short lifetime. people, but in another real sense, color didn't I want students to be inspired by the fact that matter to her at all, People mattered." she didn't let anything hold her back," PiecesThat Create The Whole Robert Nemiroff, Hansberry's former hus- The Drinking Gourd band and executor of her literary estate, was (commissioned 1959)Characters:Hannibal, the primary person responsible for the origi- Sarah, Zeb Dudley, Hiram Sweet, and nal version ofTo Be Young, Gifted, and Tommy. This drama written for television Black.He states: looks at the institution of slavery: the To Be Young, Gifted, relationships between master and slave, and Black also ",,.the words, experiences, characters, and cre freedom and bondage. includes a monologue ationc..,are her own. But it is also an adaptation, from Sean O'Casey's a portrait rendered through The perspective of The Sign in Sidney Juno and the Paycock. another's eyes. And Therefore it takes a some Brustein's Window(premiered 0"Casey (1880-1964) what novel form: biography and autobiography, 1964)Characters:Iris, Sidney. Set in New was a famous Irish part fact, part fiction, an act of creation and York City's , the play looks playwright born in recreation utilizing firstperson materials as at how much an individual can sacrifice poverty and self- well as...autobiographical projections of herself his/her personal, social, and political ideals. educated. His plays in her characters," All the Dark and Beautiful deal with the violent The first production of the play opened in Warrrors(Unfinished, unpublished struggle for Irish novel)Character: in January 1969. Nemiroff felt Candace. The young independence and strongly that Lorraine Hansberry's Voice student Candace, is based on Hansberry and feature realistic came through clearly in her characters. The her experienCes with African students at the settings and colorful following synopses identify the characters University of Wisconsin. characters and speech. and scenes shown inTo Be Young, Gifted, Of What Use Are Flowers? and Black: (completed in 1962) This play was conceived as a fantasy fot television about the (premiered 1959)Characters:Mama, Walter, aftermath of nuclear war. Beheatha, and Rtith Younger, and Lindner. Les Blancs(written in 1963) This is a The Younger family struggles to make its play about leaders for African independence. dreams come true despite the despair,, danger, - , r ter; and frustration of life in the , gheito. Toussaint(u ished) This;play is Lindner represents the forces of racism. out the HaitianCeVolutionaryleader.

5 BEST COPY AVAILABLE Lorraineensberry: Her Lifend Le acy Lorraine Hansberry was born in Chicago in of the day who influenced her. Her father's 1930. Her father was a well-respected busi- sudden death shortly before Lorraine's 16th nessman, landlord, and inventor. He was also birthday left her even more isolated. When it a political activist with considerable knowl- was time for college, Hansberry selected the edge of law. His shrewd business investments University of Wisconsin. enabled his family to live comfortably even While at Wisconsin, Hansberry attended during the Great Depression. THE GREAT Juno and The Paycock,Sean O'Casey's drama DEPRESSION began on Hansberry's mother was a Ward about a lower middle class Irish family. October 29, 1929, Councilwoman and accountant. She was col- Hansberry identified strongly with this play, when the stock market lege educated, something rare for African- its truthful family portrait, its universal crashed. Great American women of that time. Both parents human issues, and its laughter and tears. She numbers of American instilled in their daughter a fierce sense of got more involved in theater, studying plays workers lost their pride and dignity in herself and her race. and set design and "...sort of hanging around savings and jobs. This They valued education and taught their chil- little acting groups...." economic crisis lasted dren to strive for the best. through the 1930s. Her political activism grew as she was As the youngest of four children, with a elected campus chairperson of the Young considerable age gap between herself and her Progressives of America. Outside of the siblings, Lorraine was often left out of activi- classroom she read about the independence ties. She learned to observe from a distance movements in Africa. Although she had and amuse herself. In school, she experienced learned much about life and had been stimu- an even greater degree of separation from her lated by much in the environment, by the end classmates because her family was better off of her sophomore year, Hansberry's academic financially than most of her schoolmates' performance was disappointing. She moved families. In fact, at the age of five, her class- to New York City in 1950. mates beat her up for wearing a brand new In New York, Hansberry began classes at white rabbit fur coat to school. The guts, for Social Research. She determination, and compassion she displayed became the youngest member of the staff of in later years was evidenced in her early the monthly magazineFreedom,published by years, since she befriended the students who singer and social activist . She beat her up and ruined her coat. Even at that wrote about Africa, women's issues, social young age, she understood the anger and issues in New York, and the arts. In 1952 she frustration of those who were the "have nots." met Robert Nemiroff, a graduate student of In high school, Hansberry continued to Russian Jewish descent, at New York feel like an outsider. During these years, she University. They married in 1953 and began a discovered Shakespeare and fell in love with life-long literary partnership. the theater. Hansberry's initial draft of her first and Visitors to the Hansberry home included most famous play,A Raisin in the Sun,was important writers, artists, and social activists completed in 1957. Within two years, it

6 challenged him to initiate and oversee needed changes in governmental atti- tudes and policies. Hansberry met and received recogni- tion from impor- tant civil rights leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and .

In 1963, Hansberry became seriously ill with cancer of the intestines. Although she obtained a divorce opened to popular and critical acclaim on from Robert Nemiroff in 1964, she continued to Broadway. Hansberry won the New York collaborate with him and named him executor Drama Critics Circle Award. During the next of her literary estate.The Sign in Sidney three years, she was commissioned to write Brustein's Windowopened late in 1964 to The Drinking Gourdfor NBC Television. She mixed reviews, which generated financial prob- worked onLes Blancs, The Sign in Sidney lems. By this time, Hansberry was gravely ill Brustein's Window,and several other plays. and hospitalized. Artists, colleagues, and The film version ofA Raisin in the Sun,for friends launched a campaign to keep the play which she wrote the screenplay, won a Cannes running In 1965, Hansberry died in New York. Film Festival award in 1961. In 1962 she com- More than 600 people, including Malcolm X, Birmingham, pleted her playOf What Use Are Flowers? attended her funeral in . They heard Alabama,11963:. written messages from Dr. King and writer During the she became increasingly Cheering and singing, , along with speeches by Paul active in the . Along an estimated 2,01:41: Robeson and actress Ruby Dee. ,-?.. with writers such as James Baldwin, blacks march owt.he Hansberry became an outspoken supporter of Four years after Hansberry's death, Robert city jail. The demon4. organizations such as the Congress of Racial Nemiroff producedTo Be Young, Gifted, and stration ended peace Equality (CORE) and the Student Non-Violent Black.Nemiroff also producedRaisin, amusi- fully with a prayer,'H., Coordinating Committee (SNCC). In a meeting cal version of her first play, which won a 1979 meeting in a field with Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, she Tony award. near the jail. 7 %-:..1L,11.".. ,7:,-.F1MINUM1144 The Woriof Lorraine Hansberry Important Influences WilliamEdward Burghardt (W.E.B.) Dubois 1868-1963 Lorraine Hansberry was influenced by sever- DuBois was a al important figures whose words and deeds frequent guest in the shaped her thinking and writing. Hansberry Toussaint L'Ouverture 1743- household. The first 1803L'Ouverture was an educated slave African American to receive a Ph.D. from COLD WARa and fighter for Haitian Harvard University term used to independence. Hansberry in 1895, he was a describe the deeply admired L'Ouverture sociologist and struggle as a fighter and brilliant crusader for African American civil rights between master of diplomacy and and education. Hansberry admired Dr. Communist politics, who terrified French DuBois for his intellectualism, commitment to nations and the ruler Napoleon Bonaparte. $-%i t'd socialism, and leadership abilities. democratic Her ambition was to write a major work on him. nations that Paul Robeson 1898-1976 began after World War Frederick Douglass 1817- Robeson was a lawyer, singer, actor, and II. It was called the 1895Douglass was a self-educated slave social activist of "Cold War" because it who became a brilliant orator, writer, international acclaim. did not lead to fighting abolitionist, and women's rights activist. Also a visitor to the on a wide scale. Hansberry kept his volumes of writings on Hansberry home, he publishedFreedom McCARTHYISM her desk and admired magazine, which was Senator Joseph his commitment to one of Hansberry's McCarthy (1908.1957) action and social TO. earliest employers. In attracted worldwide change. From his .r a 1954 cultural salute attention by charging narratives she gained to Robeson, she called him a "voice and that Communists had knowledge about champion of the people's struggle." infiltrated the U.S. slavery that she used in her playThe government. He 1902-1967 IMM1h. Drinking Gourd. conducted several Another frequent guest in the Hansberry public hearings, some home, Hughes was a poet, of which were playwright, and short story televised. writer who celebrated the essence of blues, gospel. and black folk humor in his work. His poem "A Dream Deferred" was the source of Hansberry's first playtitle, A Raisin in the Sun.

8 We Shall Overcome

There is no doubt that the historical, economic, and social changes that took place during Hansberry's lifetime shaped her outlook and COMMUNISMa form her destiny. Hansberry was a child of the Depression era and, despite FREEDOM RIDES, SIT- of government and the fact that her family was comfortable economically, she was keenly INS, PICKET LINESin economic system aware of the suffering and deprivation of those around her. No doubt the late '50s and early (developed from the her teen years were affected by World War II, a time when African '60s, students who ideas of Russian leader Americans fought hard on two fronts: against the oppression of the followed Dr. Martin Lenin and German Nazis and within the segregated United States armed forces. During Luther King, Jr.'s philosopher Karl Marx) Hansberry's college years in the 1950s, the forces of theCold War, philosophy of non- calling for centralized McCarthyism,andanti-Communismhelped shape her liberal political violent protest traveled ownership of industry. views. to the South on buses Emphasis is placed on to protest. These bus She had tremendous interest in the emergence of independent the needs of the group trips were called African nations and did extensive research and writing on the subject. rather than the needs freedom rides. To CertainlyRosa Parks'scourageous protest and the social activism of of the individual. Most protest segregated the students involved infreedom rides, sit-ins, and picket linesin the Communist forms of facilities, large groups South in the '50s inspired her. government curtail of students staged sit- democratic Along with the rest of the nation, she was profoundly affected by ins in public areas, participation and the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963. The thinking and ora- refusing to move. individual freedoms. tory of African-American leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Picket lines were Malcolm X, and others in the early '60s had a significant personal and marches in which (1913- ) artistic impact on Hansberry. Six months prior to her death, though students carried signs, Sometimes called the gravely ill and in constant pain, she wrote: sang, and chanted to Mother of the Civil protest segregation in think when I get my health back I rhall go into the South to find out Rights Movement. Ms. front of schools, what kind of revolutionary I am." Parks was a black businesses, and other seamstress who Hansberry was also influenced by the writers and theater artists of sites. Students who protested against her lifetime. She spoke of the profound effect that Arthur Miller's play participated in these segregation on buses Death of a Salesman(1949) had on her creation of the character of activities were in Montgomery, Walter Lee Younger inA Raisin in the Sun.Hansberry was exposed to regularly arrested and Alabama in 1955. By the work of playwrights such as Tennessee Williams, Lillian beaten, and some were refusing to give up her Hellmann, and Eugene O'Neill. During these years, method actors killed. seat and move to the such as Marlon Brando and Shelley Winters were bringing a new kind back of the bus, Ms. of realism to acting to accommodate plays that focused on social and Parks drew national political issues. Producers, playwrights, designers, directors, and attention to Civil actors were all affected and inspired by the social changes taking Rights efforts in the place in the country. South.

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. - Before and After the Play BEFORE THE PERFORMANCE: Discussion Topics Activities 1. Have you been to a play/live perfor- 1. At one point during her work on her mance? What was the experience like? award-winning first play, ARaisin in the What advice would you give to a person Sun, Lorraine Hansberry threw the script who is going to live theater for the first YOU MAY WANT TO up to the ceiling, let it scatter on the floor, time? READ and almost swept it into the fireplace. 2.How do you think attending live theater is To Be Young, Gifted, Make a list of the difficulties you have different from going to the movies? and Black: Lorraine trying to write. Share and compare your Hansberry in her Own lists in a small group. Brainstorm ways AFTER THE PERFORMANCE Words, adapted by to overcome obstacles and frustrations in Activities Robert Nemiroff, writing.

Prentice Hall, Inc, 1. Imagine that you could write a letter to 2.Imagine yourself writing an autobiogra- Englewood Cliffs, New Lorraine Hansberry.Tell her how you phy 10 years from now List the people Jersey, 1969 felt seeing her life on stage.Tell her and events which will be major influences what you have in common. Lorraine Hansberry, by in your life. Anne Cheyney, Twayne 2.Make a journal entry about the perfor- 3.Looking at yourself in a mirror, draw a Publishers, Boston, mance. What did you like or dislike quick self-portrait in pencil. Create a 1984. Twayne's United about the performance? What were the gallery of self-portraits to display in the States Authors Series, most memorable moments? What did classroom. Warren French, Editor, you learn about Lorraine Hansberry? Indiana University, 4. Keep a journal. For three to seven days, Share your journal entries with partners Indianapolis write down your activities, your observa- or with the class. tions about people, places, and things, your thoughts, your dreams, what you Discussion Topics

see, hear, touch, taste, and smell. Carry 1. Describe the set. How was the theater your journal with you so that you can space designed to present the play? record your thoughts as they occur. Ma OYO 2.How did the actors create the many char- When you get to the last day, re-read the . acters they played? The Kennedy Center entry from the first day. Are you sur- Lawrence J. Wilker, President Derek E. Gordon. Associate prised at what you wrote? Do you feel the 3.Which actors were your favorites and why? Managing Director. Education To Be Young Gifted same way now? What in your life has 4.What costumes and props do you remember? and Black changed since that time?Select portions Writer: Ca leen Sinnette CUEJennings. Editor: of your journal to share with a partner. 5.Were many lights used? Do you remember SHEET RosalindFlynn.Design: Paul Dupree Communications. Discuss your entries. Did you write about scenes that were particularly dark? Were Cuesheetisfundedinpart the same kinds of things? What did you there others that were particularly bright? through the support of the U.S. Department of Education, The learn about each other? Why do you think those lighting choice's Kennedy Center Corporate Fund, and The Morris and Gwendolyn were made? Cafritz Foundation.

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