Tag Archives: Lorraine Hansberry

[Black History Month#2]ブロードウェイ・デビュー最年少の黒人女性劇作家、ロレイン・ハンズベリー

Black History Month 2
Lorraine Hansberry – A Raisin In The Sun

2月は黒人歴史月間です。PBS TV(公共テレビ放送局)では、ブラック・ヒストリー・マンスのシリーズ第一弾として、「ロレイン・ハンズベリー・ドキュメンタリー映画」を放映しました。日本ではあまり知られていないかも知れませんが、ブラック・カルチャーに貢献したロレインをここで紹介したいと思います。

「ア・レーズン・イン・ザ・サン」byロレイン・ハンズベリー

女性劇作家、ロレイン・ハンズベリーのデビュー作品、「ア・レーズン・イン・ザ・サン」は今から59年前(!!!)、1959年の3月、ニューヨークのブロードウェイで幕開けをしました。史上初の黒人女性劇作家、28歳という若さでの快挙でした。作家だけでなく、監督、ほとんどの俳優たちが黒人という、これまでのブロードウェイ・ショーの常識を覆した、黒人が主役のドラマ「ア・レーズン…..」は大成功を収めました。

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Legendary Actress Ruby Dee Dies At 91

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日本語

Ruby Dee 1922-2014

Actress Ruby Dee died on Wednesday at her home in New Rochelle, surrounded by all her children and ground children. She was 91 years old.

She achieved her breakout role in 1959 opposite Sidney Poitier in the Broadway drama, “A Raisin in the Sun” . . . roles they reprised two years later on film.

A Raisin in the Sun was the first play written by a then 29 year-old black woman Lorraine Hansberry to be produced on Broadway, as well as the first play with a black director (Lloyd Richards) on Broadway.

Ossie Davis & Ruby Dee

Ossie Davis & Ruby Dee

Born in Cleveland she considered herself a native New Yorker as she was raised in Harlem.

Her career as an actress paralleled her work as an activist, often done with husband of 57 years Ossie Davis at her side until his death in 2005. She and Davis were close friends with both Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, whose eulogy Davis gave in 1965 — two years after Dee delivered a stirring reading at King’s March on Washington.

After her husband’s death, Ruby carried on, winning an Oscar nomination for her role in the 2007 film, “American Gangster.”

Broadway theaters dimmed their lights briefly Friday night to honor the memory of one of their best.

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Important collaboration was OFF screen, where they were life-long leaders of the civil rights movement, including the 1963 march on Washington.