This groundbreaking play starred Sidney Poitier, Claudia McNeill, Ruby Dee and Diana Sands in the Broadway production which opened in 1959. Set on Chicago's South Side, the plot revolves around the divergent dreams and conflicts within three generations of the Younger family: son Walter Lee, his wife Ruth, his sister Beneatha, his son Travis and matriarch Lena, called Mama. When her deceased husband's insurance money comes through, Mama dreams of moving to a new home and a better neighborhood in Chicago. Walter Lee, a chauffeur, has other plans, however: buying a liquor store and being his own man. Beneatha dreams of medical school.
The tensions and prejudice they face form this seminal American drama. Sacrifice, trust and love among the Younger family and their heroic struggle to retain dignity in a harsh and changing world is a searing and timeless document of hope and inspiration. Winner of the NY Drama Critic's Award as Best Play of the Year, it has been hailed as a "pivotal play in the history of the American Black theatre." by Newsweek and "a milestone in the American Theatre."

Play concerning a young couple, journalist and actress, living in Greenwich Village. Robert Nemiroff, Miss Hansberry's husband and co-producer of "The sign in Sidney Brustein's window" tells the story of its author and the circumstances of its production.

From the award-winning author of A Raisin in the Sun, comes one of the most electrifying classic masterpieces of the American theater: an unforgettable portrait of a man struggling with his individual fate in an age of racial and social injustice.

"Rich and warm and funny... beautifully written.” —Los Angeles Times
 
The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window, along with A Raisin in the Sun, are milestones in the American theater, remarkable not only for their historical value but for their continued ability to engage the imagination and the heart.

“It is drama of such clarity that one may return to it again and again, and, I expect, emerge as deeply moved; and each time the more illumined…. Miss Hansberry, I am convinced, doesn’t know how to create a character who isn’t gloriously diverse, illuminatingly contradictory, heart-breakingly alive…. [A] personal odyssey of discovery, a confrontation with others in the process of which [Brustein] discovers himself.” —from the Foreword by John Braine

With an Introduction by Robert Nemiroff.