March 29, 2011 - The Polk State College Theatre proudly presents the critically acclaimed classic To Be Young, Gifted and Black by Lorraine Hansberry. Performances will be on the Main Stage Theatre of the Winter Haven campus, with a free preview Tuesday, March 29 at 7:30 p.m. Opening night, March 30, will include a pre-show reception at 6:30 p.m. with a 7:30 p.m. curtain time. The play continues March 31 through April 2 at 7:30 p.m. and closes with a Sunday matinee April 3, curtain 2:30 p.m.

Polk State College Theatre Director Paul Carbonell said, “In January we were blessed by having a living legend on our stage—Maya Angelou. Now just two months later we have another powerful African-American artist being featured on our stage—Lorraine Hansberry. Working on this piece of iconic American theatre has been so rewarding for our students and me. It has helped us both as people and artists in discovering how we all connect by spending some time with one of America’s legendary playwrights.” 

In 1959 at the age of 29, playwright Lorraine Hansberry was the youngest American, the first woman, and the only black to have ever won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play of Year for A Raisin in the Sun. To Be Young, Gifted and Black is autobiographical, beginning with a speech she gave before the opening of A Raisin In The Sun and moving around non-chronologically from her childhood in the Chicago ghetto to her first trip south to her college years to her short time in New York as a playwright before she died at the young age of 34 from cancer.

Tickets are available at the box office one hour before the performance the day of the show. Admission is free for Polk State College students and high school students with ID and for all Polk State College staff and faculty. Tickets are $8.00 for theatre enthusiasts. All proceeds go to the Polk State College Foundation Theatre Scholarship fund.