The Pulitzer Prize-winning Clybourne Park revolves around a house in the suburbs of Chicago. In 1959 the Youngers, a black family, move in. In 2009, a white family buys the property. Eight actors tackle two different generations of characters tip-toeing through the minefield of social politics in the same home, fifty years apart. In that time, property values and inhabitants change but, even with the dawn of political correctness, do attitudes stay the same? In part a riff on—and an homage to—Lorraine Hansberry’s masterful A Raisin in the Sun (where the Younger family originated), Bruce Norris’s whip-smart dark comedy takes on the specter of gentrification in our communities, and the unsettling question of what we talk about when we talk about race.



This is a play about race in American in the last half century, and about how much or little has changed.

Live Arts is proud and honored to present Clybourne Park with the support from Charlottesville’s Dialogue On Race. Join Dialogue On Race Program Coordinator Charlene Green for a thoughtful and eye-opening series of talkbacks after the following performances:

Saturday, October 13 following the 8pm show
Saturday, October 20 following the special 2pm show
Thursday, November 1 following the 7:30pm show
Wednesday, November 7 following the Pay-What-You-Can 8pm show

*You do not need to have seen that day’s performance in order to attend the talkback

Light refreshments and riveting conversation, all sparked off by this astounding play. Join us!

A NOTE FROM BETSY TUCKER
This is an important play for Charlottesville. It is FUNNY and it is edgy. Not everyone is going to like this play or what is says about us, but it is hard for me to ignore the strings it plucks in me about my own experiences with real estate and race.

Download the Clybourne Park Study Guide (pdf)

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