The Lorraine Hansberry Theatre

The Lorraine Hansberry Theatre is named after the acclaimed playwright of A Raisin in the Sun. She wrote the play while living in Bay Area. Since being founded in 1981, The Lorraine Hansberry Theatre has mounted productions that have included performances by Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis, Danny Glover and Ntozake Shange. The Lorraine Hansberry Theatre is the first African-American arts institution to be located in downtown San Francisco.

For 30 years, The Lorraine Hansberry Theatre has celebrated the African-American experience - an American experience - on stage in the San Francisco Bay Area. Described as the most tenacious arts organization in San Francisco, The Lorraine Hansberry Theatre has survived numerous obstacles including a declining African-American population — the San Francisco population has decreased to 6% — and multiple changes in location. The Lorraine Hansberry Theatre has mounted more than 100 plays, productions and theatrical events since its genesis.

Notable productions include the 1987 production of Ntozake Shange's play Three Views of Mt. Fuji, which completed a six-week run at the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre preceding an opening in New York at New Dramatists. In 1991 African-American playwright Robert Alexander challenges the work of Harriet Beecher Stowe with a production at The Lorraine Hansberry Theatre examining stereotypes in the cabin of Uncle Tom.

June 23, 2007 - "This June the arts community went into crisis mode with the news that the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre was being kicked out of the former YWCA at 620 Sutter Street that it has occupied since 1988. What's more, San Francisco's oldest and most established African-American theatre company was being displaced by another arts organization, the Academy of Art University, which has used the building as a dormitory since 2005 and is currently in the process of buying it. The Lorraine Hansberry's lease was to expire at the end of July, and the academy expected the company to vacate the space by then".

"The Lorraine Hansberry Theatre immediately mobilized supporters for an all-out campaign to save the theatre. Links on the company's website provided quick e-mail links to Mayor [Gavin Newsom] and each member of the city's Board of Supervisors, as well as mailing addresses for Academy of Art president Elisa Stephens and various legislators. The theatre counts up to 1,300 e-mails sent from its site as well as unknown numbers of cards and letters. The heads of the San Francisco Opera, San Francisco Ballet, San Francisco Symphony, SFMOMA and other major institutions sent a joint letter urging the mayor to take action."

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Wikipedia