Time to get reading! Our next gathering of the CTC Book Club is coming up Tuesday, March 8, at 7 p.m., when we'll be discussing Bruce Norris' CLYBOURNE PARK.
The 2010 winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the Tony Award for Best Play, CLYBOURNE PARK is a biting and surprisingly funny response to Lorraine Hansberry's masterpiece A RAISIN IN THE SUN.
CLYBOURNE PARK is a razor-sharp satire about the politics of race. Norris set up the play as a pair of scenes that bookend Hansberry’s piece. These two scenes, 50 years apart, are both set in the same modest bungalow on Chicago’s northwest side that features at the center of A RAISIN IN THE SUN. The first scene takes place before and the second scene takes place after the events of that earlier work.
In 1959, Russ and Bev are moving out to the suburbs after the tragic death of their son. Inadvertently, they have sold their house to the neighborhood’s first Black family. Fifty years later in 2009, the roles are reversed when a young white couple buys the lot in what is now a predominantly Black neighborhood, signaling a new wave of gentrification. In both instances, a community showdown takes place, pitting race against real estate with this home as the battleground.
You'll find the script on the group's Facebook page. If you're not a member yet, search for "CTC Book Club" and ask to join. Then join us for some good conversation (and a little vino if you want to BYOB)!