A Raisin in the Sun

The Classic Theatre, San Antonio TX - January 2024

By Lorraine Hansbury

Darcell Andre, Director

Alfy Valdez, Scenic Designer

Rose Kennedy, Costume Designer

Pedro Ramirez, Lighting Designer

Dr. Elizabeth Ramirez, Dramaturg

Deconstructed Jazz

Door Motifs

Door Motif Resolved

Time Waits (Glitch)

Early in the design process, the director settled on a very high-concept vision for this particular production of Raisin. Our version took place in a liminal space somewhere between reality and purgatory, where as the play progressed, it became more apparent that the characters were trapped by forces beyond their control. To emphasize this concept, we placed a door directly upstage that the characters attempted to open periodically with no success until the end of act two, where it opened to reveal a brick wall - just after Walter reveals to the family that their $10,000 check has been squandered.

The sound design played heavily off of blending together a warped sense of reality with historical anchors. Pre-show music contained songs by artists involved in the jazz scene in 1950's Chicago, and the first intermission played the same songs cut up and distorted in various ways. Second intermission remained almost completely silent, except for the vinyl crackles of an empty record. Every time a character attempted to open the upstage door, a motif played, which only resolved at the end of the play as Mama closed the door - on her way to a new home and a new life with her family.

I also wrote nearly 8 minutes of what I've called Deconstructed Jazz to fill the silences during scene changes. We ended up needed less filler music than initially planned for, but the overall concept still served the production well.