A Raisin in the Sun

In This Program

• About The Play
• Director’s Note
• Company
• Taste of Show
• Dramaturgy: Telling the Truth
• Lobby Gallery
• Print Edition
• More About Taproot Theatre

About The Play

Playing in the Jewell Mainstage Theatre

Cast

(In Order of Appearance)

Walter Lee Younger
Arlando Smith*

Ruth Younger
Shermona Mitchell

Travis Younger
Channing Gistarb

Beneatha Younger
Deja Culver

Lena “Mama” Younger
Marlette Buchanan*

Joseph Asagai
Dimitri Woods*

George Murchison
Donovan Mahannah

Karl Lindner
Tim Gouran

Bobo
Jeffrey Cheatham II

Understudies/Alternates

Walter Lee Younger and Bobo
Leon Huggins-Richards Jr.

Beneatha Younger and Ruth Younger
Hazel Rose Gibson

Lena “Mama” Younger
Melyssa Stone*

George Murchison and Joseph Asagai
Joshua Micah Webb

Travis Younger alternates:

Blaise Gistarb
Ajani Dickerson

Production

Director
Bretteney Beverly

Assistant Director
Brodrick Santeze Ryans

Scenic/Sound Design
Mark Lund

Costume Design
Erica Manzano

Propmaster
Cat Kerr

Lighting Designer
Brian Engel

Stage Manager
Leila Cheung*

Dialect Coach
Gin Hammond

Dramaturgy
Sonja Lowe

Setting

Early 1950s. The Younger family’s apartment on Chicago’s South Side.

A Raisin in the Sun is approximately 2 hours and 45 minutes, with one 15-minute intermission.

— Hughes, Langston. “Harlem.” Montage of a Dream Deferred. [First edition]. New York, Holt, 1951.

Welcome to Taproot Theatre and the newly renovated Jewell Mainstage Theatre. We’re reopening our doors and launching the 2025 Season with revered American theatrical masterpiece, Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun.  

We are excited to present this production in collaboration with two local organizations, Acts on Stage and The Root Of Us. These collaborations highlight our shared passion for excellence in the performing arts and our ongoing commitment to mission-aligned organizations in presenting stories that resonate deeply with audiences. Together, we worked to bring this iconic story to life with depth, sincerity, sensitivity, and respect.

A Raisin in the Sun offers a profound exploration of race, class, and identity while delving into timeless themes of family, dreams, and personal struggle. 

What makes A Raisin in the Sun so moving is Hansberry's ability to blend the everyday with the profound. Her language pulses with contradiction: the warmth of family and fleeting moments of joy set against the frustration of dreams unrealized, the pressure to break free that is building to an explosion point, and the unrelenting quest for space. Space to simply live, to breathe, to grow, and to thrive. Hansberry's brilliance lies in her ability to intertwine the characters' individual aspirations with the harsh societal and systemic forces that stand in their way, making the play deeply resonant across generations and just as impactful today as when it premiered on Broadway in 1959.

I firmly believe that Hansberry’s timeless work has something to say to audiences of all ages. I’m eager to invite the next generation of Americans to engage with this story and ponder Langston Hughes’ powerful question, “What happens to a dream deferred?”

As you experience this play (again or for the first time), I invite you to reflect on how dreams and disappointments echo across generations, shaping the lives of those who come after. I invite you to consider where your own family’s history intersects with the Younger’s and where, perhaps, it differs. I invite you into the discussions that we have already been having in our rehearsal room about family, history, identity, and the complex question: Who gets access to the American Dream?

I’m so glad that you are here to join in this conversation.

Welcome! And enjoy the show.

Bretteney Beverly

Company

Cast

Marlette Buchanan (Lena “Mama” Younger) is excited to return to Taproot Theatre, where credits include My Lord, What a Night (Mary Church Terrell); The Spitfire Grill (Effy); Crowns (Mabel); and Steel Magnolias (Clairee). Recent/favorite shows include Once on This Island (Village); Newsies (Medda); The Wiz (Aunt Em, The 5th Avenue Theatre); Milk Like Sugar (Myrna) and Violet (Lula) at ArtsWest; Carmina Burana (Spectrum Dance Theatre); Porgy and Bess (Seattle Opera); Ain’t Misbehavin’ (Nell); and Ragtime (Sarah). Much love to family and friends!

Jeffrey Cheatham II (Bobo) is making his Taproot debut. He is a dynamic actor with experience in film, television, and theatre. He starred as Davis in Homeless or Right at Home and appeared in Three Busy Debras on Cartoon Network. His stage credits include A Soldier’s Play, Pipeline, Tartuffe, and 12 Angry Men, among others.

Deja Culver (Beneatha Younger) is from Dallas, GA. She was awarded a scholarship from the University of Washington School of Drama for the Professional Actor Training Program, where she just received an MFA last March. Select UW theatre credits include Father Comes Home from the Wars, The Moors, and Vanity Fair. You might have recently seen her in Clyde’s and the black horror, Covenant, at ArtsWest. 

Channing Gistarb (Travis Younger) is excited for his debut on the Taproot stage. He was part of Snow Whyte and the Seven (Acts on Stage), and his latest role includes Jetsam and Eel understudy in The Little Mermaid (Royal Theatre Company). Channing would like to thank Acts on Stage, Taproot Theatre, and his family for their support.

Tim Gouran (Karl Lindner) (he/him) is a Seattle-based actor and has performed with many regional and local theatres including Seattle Rep, Strawberry Theatre Workshop, Intiman Theatre, Seattle Children’s Theatre, New City Theater, Washington Ensemble Theatre, Theatre22 and Azeotrope Theatre. He got his start with The Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis.

Shermona Mitchell (Ruth Younger) is making her Taproot debut. She is an actor, director, and adaptor originally from Kentucky. They’ve worked on stages across the U.S. and internationally. Seattle credits include The 5th Avenue Theatre, ACT, and Sound Theatre, where they serve as a Co-Artistic Director. For the Mamas, Past and Present.

Arlando Smith (Walter Lee Younger) makes his Taproot debut with this production. Elsewhere locally, he’s worked at ACT, Book-It, Seattle Opera, Seattle Children’s Theatre, Seattle Rep, Seattle Shakespeare, Spectrum Dance, and Village Theatre. Further afield, he has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe, the Kennedy Center, the Los Angeles Theatre Center, and The Public Theater. arlandosmith.com

Dimitri Woods (Asagai/Walter Lee u/s) is a Seattle-born actor, producer, and dialect coach. He holds an MFA in Acting from UofSC. Dimitri is excited to be back on stage with Taproot. You may have seen Dimitri in productions like Welcome to Braggsville (Book-It), Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley (Taproot), Milk Like Sugar (ArtsWest), Six Degrees of Separation (Theatre9/12), Riverwood, The Amen Corner (The Williams Project), and others. dimitrijai.com

Donovan Mahannah (George Murchison) (he/him) is thrilled to be making his Taproot debut in this important production! Recent credits include Covenant (ArtsWest), Love’s Labor’s Lost (Seattle Shakespeare), God’s Favorite (Passinart Theatre), Spring Awakening (The 5th Avenue Theatre), Brown Bodies on a Blue Earth (The Underground Theater), Romeo & Juliet and Bold Stroke for a Husband (Island Shakespeare Festival). Donovan sends endless gratitude and love to his family and friends. Thank you for supporting live theatre! Enjoy the show! @dono.mahannah

Understudies/Alternates

Ajani Dickerson (Travis Younger alternate) was last seen in Acts on Stage’s Snow Whyte & the Seven. He participated in their training program, Renaissance20, for acting and singing in 2023 and 2024. His first production at Acts on Stage was Dream (Little Cameron).

Hazel Rose Gibson (Beneatha Younger & Ruth Younger u/s) is honored to have the opportunity to work on this classic. Favorite credits include The Moors (Seattle Public Theater), A Christmas Carol (ACT), OR, (Theatre22), Pipeline (Seattle Public Theater), and American Junkie (Book-It Rep). Hazel sends big love to her parents, Yvonne Flo, and her spectacular partner, Brad! hazelrosegibson.com IG: notorious_hrg

Blaise Gistarb (Travis Younger alternate) performed in Snow Whyte and the Seven (Acts on Stage). He recently performed as Flotsam and Eel understudy in The Little Mermaid (Royal Theatre Company). He’d like to thank his mom for her support along with Acts on Stage and Taproot Theatre for this amazing opportunity.

Leon Huggins Jr (Walter Lee Younger and Bobo u/s) is ecstatic to make his debut on the Taproot stage. Credits include A Soldier’s Play (Acts on Stage), Cry it Out (inD Theatre), and In the Blood (UW School of Drama). Thanks to my family, cast, and crew. Enjoy the show, TURN YOUR PHONE OFF!

Melyssa Stone (Lena “Mama” Younger u/s) is a multi-instrumental performer in the Seattle area. Performances include Into the Woods (5th Avenue), The Wiz (TCR), and performances at Jazz Alley. Melyssa is a former vocalist for Ben Folds and has collaborated with multi-genre artists nationwide. To the first mother in my family, Eliza, to the eastern shore soil, to Audre, Lorraine and Lucille: we who are starshine and clay.

Joshua Micah Webb (George Murchison & Joseph Asagai u/s) is making his Taproot Theatre debut. He has also performed in five other productions, Soldier's Play, Pipeline, Dream, King X The Meeting, and Story of an Off-Brand Band, all for Acts on Stage. Joshua is also a boys varsity basketball coach and lead mentor for Denny International Middle School as well as a production associate for Acts on Stage.

Production Team

Bretteney Beverly (Director) serves as the Associate Artistic Director at Taproot Theatre. She recently directed Sister Act and My Lord, What a Night at Taproot. Favorite theatre credits include A Streetcar Named Desire, 'Night Mother, Grease, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Crowns, An Octoroon, Pride & Prejudice, Flyin' West, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Bus Stop, Macbeth, and A Woman of No Importance. Favorite directing credits include Everybody, Grease, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow is Enuf, R & J, Little Shop of Horrors, The Fantasticks, Crimes of the Heart, and Always… Patsy Cline. In her off time, she enjoys spending time with family, friends, and her adorable pit bull, Boss Lady. She would like to dedicate this show to her Gran, Maxcine Chambers.

Brodrick Santeze Ryans (Assistant Director) (he/him) is a Seattle-based musical theatre artist, director, and casting director, dedicated to inspiring youth through performance and theatre education. He has worked with numerous local companies and recently served as the casting associate and artistic liaison for the 5th Avenue Theatre. Brodrick recently worked as the associate director on The Last Five Years and directed Brown Bodies on a Blue Earth by Cris Eli Blak. He is thrilled to be a part of this team. He sends a heartfelt thanks to his partner, BJ, for his unwavering support.

Leila Cheung (Stage Manager) is a bicoastal stage manager. Previous Seattle area works include productions with Taproot Theatre, Village Theatre, ArtsWest, and Seattle Shakespeare Company. When she’s not in a theatre, you can find her living her double life as a mermaid.

Brian Engel (Lighting Designer) Brian received his MFA in Lighting Design from the University of Maryland and currently works as the Lighting Supervisor for Meany Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Washington. He has been a regular designer with Taproot Theatre Company since 2011. Some of his favorite designs include My Lord, What a Night, Necessary Sacrifices, and Dracula. 

Gin Hammond (Dialect Coach) is an award-winning Harvard University/Moscow Art Theatre graduate, most recently seen in POTUS at ACT Theatre and Blithe Spirit at Seattle Rep. Gin has been awarded National Endowment for the Arts grants for multiple plays, and her book, Returning the Bones, is a National Indies Excellence finalist and a Gold-winning INDIES Book of the Year. She is also co-founder of the Meditations for Actors mobile app. Gin’s recent solo show, Living IncogNegro, will be released as a feature-length film in 2025.

Cat Kerr (Propmaster) is a props artisan who is new to Seattle. She loves props and the stories they tell. Having worked in theatre and TV/film, she understands the importance of all types of props and particularly enjoys set dressing and creating detailed items that help create the world of the play. This is her first show at Taproot Theatre, and she is excited to join this amazing group of theatre storytellers! 

Sonja Lowe (Dramaturg) has a BA in Theatre from Seattle Pacific University and an MLitt in Dramaturgy from the University of Glasgow. She is the Literary Manager and Resident Dramaturg at Taproot Theatre Company and contributes dramaturgical research to other regional theatres in the Pacific Northwest.

Mark Lund (Scenic & Sound Design) has designed many things in many places. Recent favorites include Lewis and Tolkien, The Book of Will, The Hello Girls, and Black Coffee. Other design work includes Seattle Shakespeare, Book-It, and award-winning short films. Mark has also voiced many regional and national projects including T-Mobile, The North Face, NHL, FedEx, Amazon, and Falco Lombardi in Starfox and Smash Bros for Nintendo. Love to Karen, Hannah, and Jake.

Erica Manzano (Costume Designer) is excited to be working with Taproot for the first time! Erica is currently the Associate Costume Director at Seattle Rep and holds an MFA in Theatre Design and Technology from the University of Georgia. She has recently designed costumes for Legally Blonde (Village KIDSTAGE), The Old Man and the Old Moon (SPU), and Silent Sky (SPU).

Karen Lund (Producing Artistic Director) has been on the Taproot staff since 1993 and became Taproot’s Producing Artistic Director in January 2021. Taproot was recently voted the Seattle Times People’s Choice Best of the Northwest for Theatre 2024, and received the 2024 Gregory Award for Outstanding Performing Arts Organization of the Year. Recent directing work includes Taproot Theatre’s Happy Christmas, Jeeves; Sherlock Holmes and the Precarious Position; the award-winning production of The Book of Will; Georgiana and Kitty: Christmas at Pemberley; The Hello Girls; and A Woman of No Importance. She has also directed at several theatres around the country and coast to coast. She is the past President of the Board of Directors for Theatre Puget Sound, a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Union (SDC), a professional voiceover artist, and the recipient of numerous theatre and film directing awards. Karen thanks her amazing family, Mark, Jake, and Hannah.

Playwright

When Lorraine Hansberry’s (1930-1965) A Raisin in the Sun appeared on Broadway in 1959, the artist became, at 29, the youngest American playwright, the fifth woman, and the only African American to date to win the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play of the Year. The play represented a landmark. In its authentic depiction of Black American life, and the vivid demonstration of so gifted a creator, cast and director, it made it impossible for the American stage to ignore African American creativity and subject matter thereafter. In 1961, the film version won a special award at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for a Screen Writer’s Guild Award for Hansberry’s screenplay.

In 1965, Lorraine Hansberry died of cancer at age 34. As if prescient, in the six years she had between the triumph of her first play and her death, she was extraordinarily prolific. Her second play to be produced on Broadway, The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, was in its early run, to mixed reviews, when Hansberry died; the curtain came down on that date. To Be Young, Gifted and Black, an autobiographical portrait in her own words adapted by her former husband and literary executor Robert Nemiroff, was posthumously produced in 1969 and toured across the country. In 1970, Les Blancs, her play about the inevitability of struggle between colonizers and colonized in Africa, and the impending crisis that would surely grow out of it, ran on Broadway to critical acclaim.

During her career as a playwright, Hansberry wrote many articles and essays on literary criticism, racism, sexism, homophobia, world peace and other social and political issues. At her death, she left behind file cabinets holding her public and private correspondence, speeches and journals, and various manuscripts in several genres: plays for stage and screen, essays, poetry, and an almost complete novel.    – The Lorraine Hansberry Trust

Equity

ACTORS’ EQUITY ASSOCIATION (“Equity”), founded in 1913, is the U.S. labor union that represents more than 51,000 professional actors and stage managers nationwide. Equity seeks to foster the art of live theater as an essential component of society and advances the careers of its members by negotiating wages, working conditions, and providing a wide range of benefits, including health and pension plans. Actors’ Equity is a member of the AFL-CIO and is affiliated with FIA, an international organization of performing arts unions. #EquityWorks

Production Crew

Crew

Assistant Stage Manager
Grace Heller

Stage Management/Crew Swing
Ron Ingram

Consultant
Fernell Miller, The Root of Us

Dramaturg Intern
Erin Owens

Casting

Casting Director
Bretteney Beverly

Casting Interns
Audrey McGee & Ejay Amor  

Costume Staff

Dressers
Nicola Krause, Morgan Morgans

Draper
Martha Mitchell

Stitchers
Scían Hayes, Veronica Dimoff

Wig Designer
Joyce Degenfelder

Wig Specialist
Kelly Schmidt

Scenic & Lighting Staff

Master Electrician
Aiyana Stephens

Scenic Carpenter
Tim Samland ^†

Scenic Charge Artist
Mark Lund

Scenic Artists
Jaiden Clark, Morgan Poirier

Light Board Operator
Tiana Price

Sound Board Operator
Marty Sisk

Electricians
Morgan Poirer, Matthew Ray, Jacob Viramontes

Scenic Strike/Load-In
Ken Harris ^†, Melina Harris ^†, Taylor Mac ^†

† All stage work performed by employees represented by I.A.T.S.E., Local No. 15.

Taste of Show

Stop by concessions before the show to pre-order your intermission refreshments.

Taproot’s concessions menu features Pacific Northwest wine and beer, non-alcoholic beverages, and a variety of snacks, including specialty items chosen specifically for this show.

Food and Drink Specials curated for A Raisin in the Sun:

Snacks

Oatmeal Raisin Cookie
(Lá Liath Bakery)

Scone – Beecher's Cheese and Onion
(Seattle Scone Co.)

Featured beverages

Mint Julep
Mint/Bourbon/Simple Syrup

Clybourne Fizz
Rum/Port/Lemon Juice /Simple Syrup /Sparkling Water

Lyre's Amalfi Spritz
(Non-Alcoholic)

Dramaturgy: Telling the Truth

When A Raisin in the Sun opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in New York on March 11, 1959, the production was groundbreaking as soon as the curtain rose.

A brand-new playwright, Lorraine Hansberry became the first Black female writer ever to have her work produced on Broadway. 

Featuring an almost entirely Black cast and centered on the story of a Black American family, most Broadway audiences in 1959 had literally never seen anything like A Raisin in the Sun. The show ran for 530 performances and won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for best play of the year. At the age of 29, Hansberry became the youngest American, the fifth woman, and the first Black writer to win this prestigious award.

Directed by the well-known Black director, Lloyd Richards, the original Broadway production pulled together an amazingly talented cast that included Sidney Poitier, Claudia McNeil, Ruby Dee, Louis Gossett Jr, Ivan Dixon, Diana Sands, Glynn Turman, Lonne Elder III, and John Fiedler. A Raisin in the Sun received rave reviews and Columbia Pictures immediately approached Hansberry regarding writing a screenplay. She agreed and most of the original Broadway cast went on to reprise their roles in a film adaptation released in 1961.

In contrast to the stereotyped parts that were so often written for Black artists on stage and screen, Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun portrayed a Black family with well-rounded characters—fully human and fully heroic. At the time, the mostly white theatre critics and reporters applauded A Raisin in the Sun as being not “just” a story about African Americans, but a universal drama that could be about any family. However, in multiple interviews on radio and television, Hansberry continually pushed back on this description, saying that the Younger family was specifically a Black American family, and even more specifically a Black American family living in Chicago’s South Side. While Hansberry agreed that nothing could be more universal in the world than the theme of “man’s oppression to man,” she also insisted that “one of the most sound ideas in dramatic writing is that, in order to create the universal, you must pay very great attention to the specific.” ¹

For Hansberry, the test of good art was that it “tell the truth” about the world and about humanity. It was only because the specific details in A Raisin in the Sun captured the truth about the Black experience in Chicago in the 1950s that the play was also able to tell a timeless story relevant to all Americans. Truth-telling, for Hansberry, was the purpose of storytelling. In 1964, she encouraged a group of young Black writers, saying: “Write if you will: but write about the world as it is and as you think it ought to be and must be—if there is to be a world. Write about all the things that men have written about since the beginning of writing and talking—but write to a point. Work hard at it, care about it. Write about our people: tell their story.” ²

A Raisin in the Sun was quickly acknowledged as a classic of the American theatre. Today the play is featured in countless school curriculums and has been the subject of multiple scholarly essays. Since the moment of its premiere and throughout the decades since, Hansberry’s masterpiece has been a work of art that opened doors in American theatre for generations of Black artists to follow in her legacy; telling the truth of their story.

_{1) Hansberry, Lorraine. "Lorraine Hansberry discusses her play, "A Raisin in the Sun." Studs Terkel Radio Archive.. Broadcast Date: May 12, 1959, Owner: Chicago History Museum. https://studsterkel.wfmt.com/programs/lorraine-hansberry-discusses-her-play-raisin-sun}

_{2) Lorraine Hansberry speech, “To Be Young, Gifted, and Black,” given to Readers Digest/United Negro College Fund creative writing contest winners, NYC, May 1, 1964.}

Lobby Gallery

Lines & Community:
Sculpture by Warren Pope

March 17–April 26, 2025

Families and homes. Inequity and intolerance. The characters in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun face racism head on as they seek their own home and the illusive American Dream. The impact of redlining on their lives is a powerful exploration of how we separate each other in ways that counter the very idea of community.

Seattle artist Warren Pope has explored the topic of redlining frequently in his sculptural work that combines “visual narratives utilizing a minimalist style of directness for various complex cultural commentaries.” His exhibition, Blood Lines, Time Lines, Red Lines, opened at the Northwest African American Museum in Seattle in 2019, telling the story of the impact of redlining on the neighborhoods of Seattle.

Warren was born in Munich, Germany to a Czech mother and an African American father. He and his two brothers were both “ridiculed and beloved by their communities for their art and outward connection to social equality and justice.” Like many military children, Warren was “exposed to cultural differences, social customs, and awkward experiences of acceptance and domestic indifference” as they moved their home around the country and the world.

Warren’s mother, Ann Pope, sparked his artistic interests while his father’s family educated him on his American and African ancestry.

Warren Pope is an alum of the University of Puget Sound and has lived in Seattle for over 30 years. His career has involved 20 years of graphic art dealership associated with the Mack Gallery and environmental design landscaping. His art has been shown by galleries including the American Art Company, Gallery Mack, Koch Gallery, Whitman College Stevens Gallery, Twin Cranes Gallery, Seagull Gallery, and Fogue Gallery. His motto has always been, “it’s not what you do, but the company that you do it with”.

All items are for sale unless marked by a red dot or NFS. To contact the artist, visit his Instagram page (@warrenwpope) for purchase inquiries and to view more of his work.

— Gina Cavallo, Curator & Director of Development, Taproot Theatre

The Root of Us

Fernell Miller (she/her)—CEO, Founder, and Principal of The Root Of Us—is a visionary leader, racial justice advocate, and educator with over 40 years of experience dismantling systemic racism in public schools.

For Taproot’s production of A Raisin in the Sun, Fernell has been holding Racial Healing Circles with artists, crew, staff and family members, engaging in Restorative Practices around the play's themes like racial inequality, class struggles, identity, and the clash between personal and communal dreams. Fernell and the cast explored how the production of A Raisin in the Sun intersects and impacts all of us and our families' dreams, as well as the journey of our own lives today. The Root Of Us invites all who experience this powerful work of art, history, and truth to do the same.

Acts On Stage Theater Company

Acts on Stage partnered with Taproot for A Raisin in the Sun this season to bring together the beautiful cast of this production to Taproot’s mainstage.

In 2020, Acts On Stage launched with a focus to center the talents, voices, and works of People of Color and Creatives of Faith. We are on a mission to Change Lives Dramatically through programs and performances that elevate the arts, artists, and all audiences!

Our vision is to be a driving force behind a new era renaissance where creativity creates social change!

With Fond Memories and Deep Gratitude

Misha Berson

1950–2025

Misha Berson began her work as a theatre critic for The Seattle Times in 1991, having already established herself as a respected arts journalist in the Bay Area. Her first Taproot Theatre review was written in 1992. Misha’s extensive knowledge and love of the arts combined to give her readers insightful critiques of productions at Seattle’s smallest and largest arts institutions. After retiring from the Times in 2016, she maintained a busy freelance writing career continuing to write for respected regional and national publications.

Taproot has named a theatre seat in her honor, remembering the passion and compassion she brought to her work covering Seattle’s theatre scene for decades.

William Hall Jr.

1946–2025

William Hall Jr. was a founding member of Seattle Group Theatre in 1978, one of the first multi-ethnic theatre companies in the country and a leader in the movement for multicultural and inclusive casting. His work as an actor was seen on stages across the country as well as here in Seattle. Taproot Theatre audiences experienced his powerful work in the company’s 2013 production of the Civil War drama, The Whipping Man. Ryan Childers, a fellow actor in that production, shared, “He helped me to be a better actor and an even better human!” Actors across the area share similar sentiments.

Taproot has named a theatre seat in his honor.

Subscribe to the rest of the 2025 Season!

Apply the cost of your ticket for A Raisin in the Sun toward a 3- or 4-Play Subscription! Are you a lover of musicals, an armchair detective, or a fan of classic wit? With our 3- and 4-Play subscriptions, you and your friends can experience it all this year at Taproot!

Always… Patsy Cline

Created and originally directed by Ted Swindley – Based on a true story. • May 14–Jun 14, 2025

Kick off your boots and dance!

Licensed by the family and estate of Patsy Cline. All rights reserved.

Murder on the Links

by Steven Dietz • Jul 9–Aug 9, 2025

Step into the mystery to crack the case! Based on Agatha Christie's novel.

The Importance of Being Earnest

by Oscar Wilde • Sep 17–Oct 18, 2025

Come see what Wilde called “A trivial comedy for serious people."

Save up to 30% on single ticket prices, and…

• Get the best seats in the house

• Receive discounts on additional tickets

• Receive first access to Christmas tickets and more!

or email: box@taproottheatre.org • 206.781.9707

Up Next on the Jewell Mainstage

Always… Patsy Cline

Directed by Karen Lund

Journey through the joy and heartbreak of Patsy Cline’s groundbreaking career through her unlikely friendship with her biggest fan. With unforgettable songs including “Walkin’ After Midnight,” “I Fall to Pieces,” and “Crazy,” you’ll experience the power of love, longing, and friendship. It’s time to kick off your boots and dance! 12+

Licensed by the family and estate of Patsy Cline. All rights reserved.

May 14–April 19, 2025

Early Bird Tickets: $30

Make your purchase by May 17 for any performance on or before May 24.

Use promo code EB2025AP online* at taproottheatre.org or by phone at 206.781.9707.

 * How to Purchase $30 Early Bird Tickets: Find the promo code field in the top right of the ticket page. Enter code BEFORE adding "ADULT ticket type" tickets to cart. This offer is valid only for adult-priced tickets in seat levels B & C. Cannot be combined with any other discount and is not valid on previously purchased tickets. Limit 4 tickets per order.

Summer Acting Camps available now!

Register today! 

Summer Camps run June 22–August 22!

Summer Camps now open for registration!

Visit our website for the most up-to-date information on Taproot’s Summer Camps for grades Pre-K–12. NEW: Improv classes for Adults!

Welcome Back!

So how do you like the new seating? And the new paint and carpet? These wonderful renovations—and more!—come to you through a Local & Community Project Grant from the State of Washington. Every day, Taproot’s Development department works hard to find the funding for building projects like this, for amazing educational programming, and for the award-winning productions like the one you’re about to see on our Mainstage, A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry.

You can make a big impact with a donation of any size or a recurring monthly gift through our Playmakers program. You might also consider a season or event sponsorship! Visit the Donate page on our website or email Development@TaprootTheatre.org to find out how you can help share the stories of hope that we all need so much!

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Taproot Theatre Contributors

Taproot Theatre gratefully acknowledges the following for their generous support of our Annual Fund and Nolte Legacy Fund. This list reflects gifts made between April 13, 2023 and April 13, 2024. If you have any questions or would like more information about making a tax-deductible gift to Taproot Theatre Company

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