6/26 SUNDAY! 'A RAISIN IN THE SUN' DOCUMENTARY ON CHANNEL 13!
This show is really great, and has been recieving excellent feedback! The first two episodes were in the top five on Channel 13 and 21 recently! It approaches dramatic characters in a completely new way.
‘CHARACTER STUDIES’ RUTH EPISODE
STARS FOUR-TIME TONY AWARD WINNER
Character Studies ‘Ruth’: Sunday, June 26 at 10:30 p.m. on WNET, channel 13 and Wednesday, July 5 at 10:30 p.m. on WLIW, channel 21
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A Broadway legend still in her thirties, Audra McDonald
portrayed the classic character Ruth in Lorraine Hansberry’s searing drama ‘A Raisin in the Sun,’ winning a fourth Tony Award for her 2004 performance. The new PBS half-hour documentary series Character Studies has selected Ruth as its newest entry.
McDonald joins veteran actress Ruby Dee, who created the role in the original 1959 Broadway production, directed by Lloyd Richards, and co-starring Sidney Poitier. Dee repeated the role in the 1961 feature film. Richards, now 78, the first African-American director to mount a Broadway drama, stated “to me, Ruth is one of the strongest and most interesting characters I have ever encountered.”
Joining Richards, McDonald and Dee in original interviews and performance clips that tell the life story of this fictional character battling both family crises and 1950s racism, are Starletta DuPois, who starred with Danny Glover in a television film version, and Ernestine Jackson, from the musical adaptation of the work, “Raisin.” Also featured is Phylicia Rashad, familiar to television audiences as the mother on the Cosby Show, who won a 2004 Tony Award for portraying Ruth’s mother-in-law Lena, and veteran actors Ralph Carter, John Fiedler and Joe Morton. Eric Stoltz hosts the episode.
Heralded as one of American theatre’s all-time great works of dramatic literature, Hansberry’s award-winning “A Raisin in the Sun” continues to be presented in regional theatres around the country. This episode includes images from some of those productions to demonstrate its continuing popularity.
‘Ruth’ premieres in New York on Sunday, June 26 at 10:30 p.m. on WNET, channel 13, and on Wednesday, July 5 at 10:30 p.m. on WLIW, channel 21. The first episode of the series ‘Amanda’ is repeated on WLIW Channel 21 on June 28th 10.30pm and June 29th 2.30am