Lorraine Hansberry Lorraine Hansberry Lorraine Vivian Hansberry (May 19, 1930 – January 12, 1965) was an African-American playwright and writer. Hansberry was the first black female author to have a play performed on Broadway. Her best known work, the play "A Raisin in the Sun", highlights the lives of Black Americans living under racial segregation in Chicago. Hansberry's family had struggled against segregation, challenging a restrictive covenant and eventually provoking the Supreme Court case "Hansberry v. Lee". The title of the play was taken from the poem "Harlem" by Langston Hughes: "What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like
What a Life (play) With the Wind" (1939). A 1982 attempted revival of "What a Life" at the Manhattan Punch Line failed. The production was panned in "The New York Times", with reviewer Mel Gussow writing: "The play is piffle. Far funnier efforts can be seen nightly in television reruns of situation comedies. Next to "What a Life," "Leave It to Beaver" is Moliere." The play was initially adapted to radio as comedy segments on Rudy Vallee's program. Next came a separate radio program, "The Aldrich Family". Film adaptation came in the form of 11 motion pictures. Finally, a television series, also called "The