"Clybourne Park" weekend of engagement

The Department of Performing Arts presents a weekend of engagement with Clybourne Park, April 14-17.

Bruce Norris’s Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning play Clybourne Park is a serious and surprisingly funny exploration of community, history, race and identity. Each performance will be preceded by a Talk on the Steps that engages with issues of race, community or theatre history. In addition, the Department of Performing Arts is producing a staged reading of Lorraine Hansberry’s iconic 1959 play, A Raisin in the Sun to complement and deepen audiences’ experiences. (Although Clybourne Park is loosely inspired by events in A Raisin in the Sun, audiences do not need to know A Raisin in the Sun to enjoy Clybourne Park.) Finally, there will be a Talkback following the Sunday performance of Clybourne Park open to the entire Elon community.

Public talks include:

• Thursday April 14 at 7 p.m.: Professor of History Mary Jo Festle will discuss racism and segregation in Chicago in a Talk on the Steps
• Friday April 15 at 3 p.m.: Student dramaturg Alexis Williams, an English and Spanish double major, will explore themes in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun in a Talk on the Steps
• Friday April 15 at 7 p.m.: Dramaturg and Assistant Professor of Theatre History Susanne Shawyer will examine the connections between the two plays in a Talk on the Steps
• Saturday April 16  at 7 p.m.: Student dramaturg Joshua Tyler Parrott, a music theatre and arts administration double major, will share his dramaturgical research into Clybourne Park in a Talk on the Steps in the McCrary Theatre lobby 
• Sunday April 17 at 1:30 p.m.: Associate Provost for Inclusive Community and Professor of Communications Brooke Barnett will explore Elon University’s approach to diversity and discuss campus diversity initiatives in a Talk on the Steps
• Sunday April 17 at 4:15 p.m.: Public Talkback about the performances in the McCrary Theatre. All welcome.

The staged reading of A Raisin in the Sun is directed by Kevin Hoffmann, and is free and open to the public. Performances are Friday and Saturday at 3:30 p.m. in Yeager Recital Hall. Clybourne Park is directed by Kirby Wahl, and performances are Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Ttickets are available at the Center for the Arts box office (free with Elon ID, or $13).