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sweet lorraine by Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj
May 23 • 8:00 pm - 9:35 pm
Free
Celebration Theatre presents the West Coast Premiere reading presentation of
sweet lorraine
By Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj
Directed by five-time Tony Award nominated director/choreographer Camille A. Brown
Click here for tickets!
After sold-out performances at the 2024 Off-Broadway Downtown Urban Arts Festival, Celebration Theatre presents a one-night-only, West Coast Premiere reading of Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj’s sweet lorraine, a play inspired by the enduring friendship of Black, queer literary icons Lorraine Hansberry and James Baldwin. The play offers an intimate imagining of the final conversation between best friends in Lorraine’s New York City hospital room in January 1965. Set one week prior to Lorraine’s passing from pancreatic cancer, the story explores the complex, dynamic, and often heated relationship between these two prolific, creative giants and American artist-activists.
Following a developmental workshop at Los Angeles LGBT Center, audiences are invited to experience this new work, brought to life for a one-night-only staged reading with the luminous talents of LA Drama Critics Circle Award winner Ashley Romans* (Y: The Last Man, NOS4A2) as “Lorraine Hansberry”, Tony nominee Ato Blankson-Wood* (B’way: Slave Play, When They See Us) as “James Baldwin”, two-time Obie Award winner and Tony Award nominee Charlayne Woodard* (B’way: Ain’t Misbehavin’, Pose), William Allen Young* (CSI: Miami, Women of Brewster Place), Jill Alexander* (Silicon Valley, Mad Men), and Steven Weber* (Wings, B’way: The Producers), with stage directions read by Leo Sheng* (The L Word: Generation Q)
The play was a semi-finalist for this year’s prestigious Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference.
Produced and Assistant Directed by Tiana Randall-Quant
Stage Management by Liv Scott
Celebration Theatre is Southern California’s longest-running queer arts nonprofit, serving Los Angeles since 1982.
This program is part of the City of West Hollywood’s free 2025 WeHo Pride Arts Festival taking place May 23-25. For more information visit www.wehopride.com/artsfestival.