Valdosta State University Theatre and Dance will present A Raisin in the Sun Feb. 18-24 on the Lab Theatre stage. Tickets are on sale now.
 
Written in 1956 by Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun tells the story of a black family living in a dilapidated, cramped, two-bedroom apartment in the Washington Park area on Chicago’s Southside and their attempt to improve their situation with an insurance payout. The playwright found inspiration in her own childhood experiences growing up in a hostile, racially charged America, as well as in Langston Hughes’s poem Harlem, or Dream Deferred.
 
A Raisin in the Sun “is a play about dreams — what it means to dream big, to lose faith in your dreams, and to discover new dreams,” according to a synopsis provided by StageAgent.com. “It is also a story about family.
 
“We meet the Younger family the day before they are getting a $10,000 insurance check from the death of the father, Walter Younger. We watch as different members of the family have different ideas of how to use the money. Mama wants to buy a house with a little garden in the back; Walter Lee Younger, their son, wants to invest in a liquor store; Ruth, Walter Lee’s wife, wants a house with some space and a nice kitchen; and Beneatha, Walter Lee’s sister, wants to go to medical school.
 
“Tensions increase as each member of the family tries to get their own way, eventually threatening to break apart their foundation completely. The stakes continue to climb as questions about identity, class, value, race, and love become forefront issues, and outsiders to the family make it impossible to forget the world that the Younger family cannot seem to escape.”
 
A Raisin in the Sun debuted on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on March 11, 1959. It later moved to the Belasco Theatre and closed on June 25, 1960, after 530 total performances. The play broke many barriers — first black play to be produced on Broadway, first play to be directed by a black director, first play written by a black female playwright.
 
Performances are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 18, Friday, Feb. 19, and Saturday, Feb. 20; 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 21; and 7:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 22, Tuesday, Feb. 23, and Wednesday, Feb. 24. The Lab Theatre is located on the second floor of VSU’s Fine Arts Building, at the intersection of Oak Street and Brookwood Drive.
 
Individual admission tickets are $15 for adults, $12 for senior citizens, $10 for children and non-VSU students, and $9 for groups of 10 or more at a single performance, plus tax and a nominal processing fee. Admission is free for all VSU students with a valid university identification card.
 
Tickets may be reserved by calling the VSU Theatre and Dance Box Office at (229) 333-5973 between the hours of 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday or by visiting https://www.ticketreturn.com/prod2/team.asp?SponsorID=7166asp?SponsorID=7166#.VgrU0Uud8RU 24 hours a day, seven days a week.