Clybourne Park

by Bruce Norris
Directed by Dan Fabrizio
November 2,3,4, in the Performing Arts Center

"Clybourne Park is a no-holds-barred study in America's failure to communicate about difficult subjects,
and our progress (or lack thereof) over the last half-century."

 

A house in the Clybourne Park neighborhood of Chicago changes hands twice over a span of fifty years. In 1959, a white couple, Bev and Russ, sell their home to an African-American family, stirring up controversy amongst their neighbors. A challenging conversation ensues, touching on the delicate topics of race, mental illness, and more.

Jump to 2009, when Kevin and Lena prepare to sell their aunt's house in the all-black Clybourne Park to a white couple, and find themselves engaged in a heated dialogue on the same topics covered fifty years prior.

Why "Clybourne Park"?

Theatre Ink had two main goals in mind: first, to actively seek out and produce stories about people of various backgrounds, and second, to further engage the community in conversations around sensitive topics like race, disability, and mental health. “Art imitates life; Clybourne Park holds a mirror up to nature, capturing our society’s inability to communicate, and how little has changed over the past fifty years.” Our hope is to generate conversations that are compassionate, honest, open, and well informed, not just within Theatre Ink, but at Newton North and in the greater community as well.

Clybourne Park behind the Scenes and Interviews

Dramaturgy Presentation on Housing and Segregation

Dramaturgy Presentation on 1950's America in Act I of Clybourne Park

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