Walter, at some point in the show gets a check from his mother because she’s like, “I have to support him, He’s a man, he need to feel like a man.” She gives him the check and the friends that he was thinking were going to hook him up, steal the money. They’re gone so then the family has to make a decision. Meanwhile, the homeowner association in this neighborhood where the new house is, sort of, come late to the table to understand it’s a black family and they want no parts of that. They send a representative to come basically buy out the family to give them a check to not move into the neighborhood and so this is also playing itself out.

By the end of the show, they dismiss him and they’re all back together as a family. They’re back as a place that can contain all these tensions that we have watched play themselves out with each individual character who has a collection of traits and a way that they walk through the world. We also see a way that they think about the world and a way that they relate to people, which is in many ways different than any other character. Then the question comes, “They’re all one family, so at what point do they have the connection and where is the connection?”

That’s what I think the play is about and that’s how you sort of as an actor say, “Where do those sort of live?” I would suggest that, even if I was scoring it or if I was musically directing it. In this incident that happens, what is being revealed and what is being played with? What is being exposed? What opportunities do the characters have to transcend where they are, to think new stuff, to take a chance and to think something new? I think that would be an important way to sort of think about it. That’s how I would analyze the script. That’s how I would see my way through this artificial thing called a play, that happens to be called Raisin in the Sun. Online performing arts education suggests asking, what human stuff can be brought out that anyone in the audience can relate to? Because everybody comes from a family, whether they are inside of that family or outside of it. Everybody sort of has a location. Everybody has a way of thinking about the world and moving through the world, which is uniquely theirs. Performing arts have a way of connecting everyone, no matter the background.

The question for all of us is, how do we live together? How do we connect together? How do we connect as a family? What binds us, and then how do we overcome the obstacles that come to us? Do we do that in separate ways, or do we need to come together to do that? That’s one way of sort of approaching a script analysis on this play that I think could be really useful because you see a whole lot of stuff. Then the trick is, where do you see yourself?

“Do you know what this money means to me?” says Walter Lee Younger. Do you know what this money could do for us, mama? Mama, I want so many things.

Lena Younger replies, “Yes, child.”

Walter Lee Younger then says, “I want so many things that they’re driving me kind of crazy.”

One thing you can do in the theater world is to raise money for another organization. That might sound counterintuitive to anyone in performing arts education. Why would you do that? According to Malini Singh McDonald, it can be easy to miss the benefits of cross-promotion and raising money at an event.

Speaking from her own experience, McDonald explains, “We did a one-night event, and it was for the LGBT Center. And what we did was my friend — and actually my conspirator — he had a play that he just wanted to get up and heard.” The two worked together on a reading of the play and created some price points around it.

McDonald continues, “I love a raffle because I can sell raffle tickets. You want me there at your matinee performance doing that. But that is also key because people will spend money on that.”

At that one-night reading, her performing arts team was able to raise money through raffles for another organization. As McDonald puts it, “So now this other organization knows that there’s this play out there, and you use all of that in your marketing materials.”

Robert Galinsky offers similar advice for anyone in online performing arts education. He recommends, “When you’re putting up a production, you’ve got to align yourself with lots of different people, lots of different organizations. I discovered this when I was in Hollywood.”

Galinsky talks about a time when he was putting on a show and doing everything he could to get people in the seats. The show was packed every night until the end of the run.

The plan was to do another run, but he couldn’t imagine putting the energy into getting people into those seats again: “That’s all I spent my time doing [was] driving an audience to the show.”

Instead, he decided to adapt. “I called every organization in LA that deals with homeless people,” he shares, “and said, ‘Let’s do a pop-up benefit show for your staff, your audience and your clients.’ And every one of them responded positively.” Galinsky received feedback like, “Oh my gosh, yes,” and, “That’s a great idea.”

When he started to do his show, he didn’t go through the normal theater channels. Instead, he used the organizations’ audience base. Those people were interested in the subject matter. They wanted to see the show, so it was a perfect fit.

Before taking his show to LA, Galinsky spent months ahead of time researching all of the organizations that served people experiencing homelessness. Once he set dates for his theater, he sent the organizations carte-blanche invitations. Their entire staff and anyone they wanted to invite would get free seats. He explains, “You work hard; you work with this population. I want you guys to have a treat. Come in, see my show for free, and give tickets away to your volunteers, your staff, whomever.”

During this time, Galinsky had an agreement with his investor. They knew that they weren’t going to make their money back on ticket sales, so the investor was fine with papering the house and loading up seats.

Every single night, at least four organizations that served people experiencing homelessness were present at the show. Beforehand, Galinsky told each one that they could have 30 seconds during the talkback at the end of the performance to pitch their organizations. They could tell the audience who they were, what they did and whom they served.

As Galinsky recalls, those organizations packed the seats. To sum up the experience, he reflects, “The thing you have to remember now is I put my butt on the line here, because if the material wasn’t authentic, if the material wasn’t real, I had people who deal with homeless people every single day watching this. They would have been disgusted with what I was doing. Thankfully, the work was good. The work was solid. And they would come up to me and go, ‘I saw my client today. I saw two of my clients on stage. I deal with that guy every day. The one who was begging for cigarettes, I see him every day.'”

The Dramatists Guild is a wonderful organization that supports playwrights all around the world and protects their rights. I would suggest joining the Dramatists Guild to anyone seriously trying to work in playwriting. Anyone in performing arts education can join it.

It wasn’t always like this. Playwrights didn’t always have such protections. Arthur Miller used to tell a story about how he went to the offices of a Broadway producer, and the producer had all of these books on his shelf that he had co-authored. Miller said to the producer, “Oh, I didn’t know you were a writer, too.”

The producer said, “Oh, I’m not. I just buy the copyright from these authors, and then I put my name on it as co-author.”

Thanks to changes in copyright law, that doesn’t happen anymore. And thanks to the Dramatists Guild, there is enforcement around these kinds of things.

When you write a play, a theater or a producer can license it from you, but they don’t buy it outright. They don’t own it. They can’t make themselves the co-author. They are paying you for the use of your work. You still own the copyright.

The Dramatists Guild has what they call the Dramatists Guild Bill of Rights. It says that the playwright has the right to be involved. It also asserts that unauthorized changes cannot be made to a script without the playwright’s permission.

A lot of people in online performing arts education don’t know that. They may have grown up with drama teachers doing cuttings of things. The teacher might take out a word or a scene that’s inappropriate for young people, and they think that’s totally legitimate. It really isn’t, and playwrights are allowed to — and have — shut down productions that have deviated from the script and made changes that nobody asked their permission for.

Sometimes the changes are really big, like changing the gender of a character. Other times, it’s just a word, and sometimes the playwright doesn’t care as much or finds out about it later.

But, in general, if you’re putting on a play, it is in your absolute best interest to check with the playwright before you make any change, no matter how small. Otherwise, the writer does have the right to shut down your play. Also, of course, you should always begin by getting permission to do the play.

A lot of people in performing arts don’t know that, and a lot of places have been shut down.