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Clybourne Park

September 08 - November 13, 2011

by ensemble member Bruce Norris

Exceedingly clever...packs a surprising emotional punch

Synopsis

On two separate afternoons, 50 years apart, a modest bungalow on Chicago’s northwest side becomes a contested site in the politics of race. September 1959: Russ and Bev are moving out to the suburbs. They’ve inadvertently sold the house to the neighborhood’s first black family and ignited a community showdown. September 2009: the neighborhood is ripe for gentrification and the house is again changing hands. This time to a young white couple with plans for demolition and a knack for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. In a provocative nod to A Raisin in the Sun, Pulitzer Prize winner Bruce Norris takes a hilarious look at what happens when home becomes a battleground.

Content Advisory

Steppenwolf does not offer advisories about subject matter, as sensitivities vary from person to person.If you have any questions about content, age-appropriateness or stage effects(such as strobe lights or theatrical fog) that might have a bearing on patron comfort, please contact the box office at 312-335-1650.

Special Performances

Post-Show Plus with Michael Fosberg
Thursday, September 29, October 16, October 13, & October 27

Post-Show Plus with Bill Savage
Tuesday October 18, October 25, & November 1

Sign Language-Interpreted
Sunday, October 16 at 7:30pm

Open Captioning
Saturday, October 22 at 3pm

Audio Description and Touch Tour
Sunday, October 30
Touch Tour: 1:30pm
Curtain: 3pm

Watch & Listen

Cast & Artists

The Artists

Costume Design: Nan Cibula-Jenkins
Lighting Design: Pat Collins
Directed by: ensemble member Amy Morton
Author:ensemble member Bruce Norris
Sound Design: Rob Milburn and Michael Bodeen
Scenic Design: Todd Rosenthal

Featured Ensemble Members

The Cast

Reviews

“Exceedingly clever…packs a surprising emotional punch”
—Chicago Sun-Times

“A brilliant tribute to ‘A Raisin in the Sun’”
—Newcity

“Convincingly and powerfully portrayed, the performances electric. I was mesmerized.”
—Chicago Splash

“Wicked satire”
—Time Out Chicago

Program Articles

Bruce Norris' Public Disgrace

An apology to Steppenwolf and the "entire city of Chicago" for not mentioning us during his 2012 Tony acceptance speech for Clybourne Park.

Race, Pulitzers and Punchlines

An interview with Clybourne Park playwright Bruce Norris and Artistic Producer Rebecca Rugg

The "Clybourne Park" in A Raisin in the Sun

By Artistic Producer Rebecca Rugg and Associate Professor of Theatre, Northwestern University, Harvey Young, Jr. Excerpted from Re-Imagining A Raisin in the Sun: Former New Plays, forthcoming from NU press.

The City & The Other

A conversation with Bill Savage, Distinguished Senior Lecturer, Northwestern University and Martha Lavey, Steppenwolf Artistic Director

The House Hansberry Built

Lorraine Hansberry’s classic American play, A Raisin in the Sun, was the inspiration for Bruce Norris’s new work Clybourne Park. While A Raisin in the Sun is a dramatic fiction, it is based on Hansberry’s real-life experience as a child, when her family moved in to Chicago’s segregated Washington Park neighborhood.

Welcome to Clybourne Park

Artistic Director Martha Lavey's welcome letter to Clybourne Park.