Omar Metwally and Arian Moayed in “Guards at the Taj” in Atlantic Theater Company. (Photo by Doug Hamilton)
1920 (105 years ago)
Hamlin Garland sent a reluctant letter joining the other jurors to award the 1920 Pulitzer Prize for the drama to Eugene O'Neill even if his play was not “noble” or “edifying”, according to Garland. Although he expressed his disappointment in the play, he recognized in a previous letter from April that the play had “no competitors”. The room, Beyond the horizonwas the second game to have won the prize. This is O'Neill's first full game and focuses on two brothers, Andrew and Robert, and their American rural family. According to GarlandIt was a “depressing delimitation of a decomposing family”. The committee refused to give the price to any part in 1917 and 1919. Garland was one of the two committees. O'Neill would continue to write Strange interlude And Long day of travel at nightwinning him two other pulitzers.
1930 (95 years ago)
Lorraine Hansberry was born on May 19 in Chicago in the first hospital belonging to blacks in the United States, provident hospital. She is best known for her room A raisin in the sun. The room is based on Hansberry c. Leea case directly involving Hansberry's family. Hansberry's father, Carl Hansberry, a real estate broker, bought a house in Woodlawn, a white neighborhood in Chicago covered by a racially restrictive alliance which indicated that no part of the neighborhood could be “sold, rented or authorized to be occupied by anyone in the colorful race”. Resident Anna Mr. Lee and other residents used the alliance to expel the Hansberry from the neighborhood. Carl Hansberry argued that the alliance was not enforceable because not enough owners had signed him. After the Supreme Court of Illinois judged that the breakage was enforceable on the basis of a previous court decision, the case moved to the United States Supreme Court, which canceled the decision and allowed the Hansberry to take possession of their home.
1960 (65 years ago)
Bruce Norris was born on May 16, just during the life of Hansberry. He was inspired by A raisin in the sun to write Clybourne parkA room that takes place before and after the events of Hansberry's play and takes place in the same house. Clybourne park was the first game to win the tony for the best game, the Pulitzer for Drama and the Olivier Award for the best new game. In his Tony's acceptance speechNorris thanked Hansberry “who really built the Clybourne Park district. We just moved and depressed the value of the properties. ”
2005 (20 years ago)
Daughter of a buffalo soldier run House house in Cleveland, Ohio. The performance of the dance theater told the story of the life of Marjorie Witt Johnson in two acts. Johnson founded a dance troupe for downtown adolescents in the former colony house now known as Karamu House, a leading theater in Cleveland with a heritage in the rebirth of Harlem and fighting for civil rights. Education and social justice are focal points of their mission. Founded in 1915 is the oldest black theater in the United States. Johnson was a highly decorated artist and educator, winning the Governor of 1999 for Ohio Arts, the Cleveland Arts Prize in 1999 for a distinguished service to the arts, the 1997 Sankofa Prize for National Black Storytellers and the Oberlin Alumni Distinuted Service Award. She died in 2007 at the age of 97.
2015 (10 years ago)
Rajiv Joseph's TAJ guards created has Atlantic Theater Company in New York. Developed first at The Lark play development centerThe play takes place in Agra, India, in 1648, when two young guards, Humayun and Babur, discover that they will be responsible for cutting the hands of all the men who built the Taj Mahal. The actors Arian Moayed and Omar Metwally both won the Obie Awards for their performance and then revived their roles at the Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago in 2018. Already a very decorated playwright, Joseph won the Obie Prize for the best new American game, Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play and Laurents / Hatcher Foundation Award.
