The New York Times ran yesterday an interview with Kwame Kwei-Armah, the dynamic artistic director at CenterStage and learned more about his much anticipated play, “Beneatha’s Place.” Kwei-Armah wrote the play in response to Bruce Norris’s 2011 Pulitzer Prize-winning controversial play about class and race, “Clybourne Park,” running at CenterStage now through June 16. (Norris wrote his play in response to Lorraine Hanberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun.” “Beneatha’s Place” will begin its run on May 8. The two plays, Kwei-Armah’s and Norris’s, will run in rotating repertory under the name The Raisin Cycle.
The article points out the risks Kwei-Armah is taking with “Beneatha’s Place,” which the AD acknowledges, too.
“In short, while some artistic directors might put a controversial play into context for their audiences with a program note or a post-show talkback, Mr. Kwei-Armah has put his reputation on the line with an ambitious new work that, although it doesn’t take on “Clybourne” directly, will invite inevitable comparisons.
‘It’s madness,’ he confessed. ‘I’m getting in there with this Goliath, and I set up the ring —I put the ropes in. What was I thinking?’”
Read For Sons of “Raisin,” a Back to Back Duel at nytimes.com
