Native Son (play)

Native Son
File:Native-Son-play.jpg First edition 1941
Written by	Paul Green Richard Wright
Date premiered	March 24, 1941
Place premiered	St. James Theatre New York City, New York
Original language	English
Genre	Drama
Setting	Chicago, Illinois

Native Son is a 1941 Broadway drama written by Paul Green and Richard Wright based on Wright's novel Native Son. It was produced by Orson Welles and John Houseman with Bern Bernard as associate producer and directed by Welles with scenic design by John Morcom. It ran for 114 performances from March 24, 1941 to June 28, 1941 at the St. James Theatre.

This is the last time Welles and Houseman, co-founders of the Mercury Theatre, ever worked together.

Cast

Canada Lee as Bigger Thomas in
Native Son (1941)

• Canada Lee as Bigger Thomas
• Frances Bavier as Peggy
• Everett Sloane as Britten
• Philip Bourneuf as Buckley, District Attorney
• Ray Collins as Paul Max, defense attorney
• John Berry as a reporter
• Helen Martin as Vera Thomas
• Evelyn Ellis as Hannah Thomas
• Joseph Pevneya as Jan Erlone
• Erskine Sanford as Mr. Dalton
• C. M. "Bootsie" Davis as Earnie Jones
• Eileen Burns as Miss Emmett
• Anne Burr as Mary Dalton
• Nell Harrison as Mrs. Dalton
• Jacqueline Ghant Andre as a neighbor
• William Malone as Judge
• Rena Mitchell as Clara
• J. Flashe Riley as Jack
• Wardell Saunders as Gus Mitchell
• Rodester Timmons as G. H. Rankin
• Lloyd Warren as Buddy Thomas

Newspaper Men

• Don Roberts
• Stephen Roberts
• Paul Stewart
• George Zorn

External links

• Native Son at the Internet Broadway Database
• Native Son — Playbill beginning April 13, 1941
• "Native Son: Best-Selling Novel is Turned into Tense Drama Strikingly Staged by Orson Welles" Life, April 7, 1941, pp. 94–96
• Major Dramatic Works: Native Son, 1940–1980 in the Paul Green Papers, #3693, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill