by Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj
West Coast Premiere Reading Presentation
After sold-out performances at the 2024 Off-Broadway Downtown Urban Arts Festival, Celebration Theatre presents a one-night-only, West Coast Premiere reading of Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj's sweet lorraine, a play inspired by the enduring friendship of Black, queer literary icons Lorraine Hansberry and James Baldwin. The play offers an intimate imagining of the final conversation between best friends in Lorraine's New York City hospital room in January 1965. Set one week prior to Lorraine's passing from pancreatic cancer, the story explores the complex, dynamic, and often heated relationship between these two prolific, creative giants and American artist-activists.
The play was a semi-finalist for this year's prestigious Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference. Celebration Theatre is Southern California's longest-running queer arts nonprofit, serving Los Angeles since 1982.
This program is part of the City of West Hollywood’s free 2025 WeHo Pride Arts Festival taking place May 23-25. For more information visit www.wehopride.com/artsfestival.