The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window

by Lorraine Hansberry
directed by Jesse Bernstein

June 15, 2026

Sidney Brustein hangs a political sign urging an end to bossism in the window of his Greenwich Village apartment, where he struggles to find success as an artist. As he fumbles his way into new business endeavors, chaos ensues in both his marriage and amongst his close circle of progressive friends and neighbors. This play tackles tough questions and themes of about Bohemian culture, Judaism, race, suicide, homosexuality, political corruption, interracial love, and prostitution.

Hansberry is best known for her first play A Raisin in the Sun. She died tragically young, just after the premiere of Sidney Brustein on Broadway in 1964.

Tickets to our Venture Reading Series are always FREE!

DESIGN/PRODUCTION TEAM:
Director: Jesse Bernstein
Production Manager: Hunter Smith

CAST:
SIDNEY BRUSTEIN - Damon Bonetti
IRIS BRUSTEIN - Carly Zien
ALTON - J Paul Nicholas
MAVIS - Jessica DalCanton
DAVID - David Pica
WALLY - J Hernandez
MAX - David Bardeen
GLORIA - Alanna Smith

Everyone wants to give you a sign to put in your window, these days. "ICE Out." "All Are Welcome Here." "Free Palestine." "I Stand With Israel." "Trump 2028." A guy around the corner from me has a rotation of hastily scrawled signs he puts up, many of which are colorful suggestions for what the PPA can do to itself. Signs are fun. They're easy. They're quick virtue signals. They let others know who is welcome -- and who isn't -- even more clearly than a "Beware the Dog" sign can. Mostly, though, we all pass by with very little attention paid or thought given to them. They tend to blend in with the holiday and sports team decorations, anyway.   

So why is putting up a sign such a to-do for Sidney Brustein? 

In Lorraine Hansberry's play, all the characters are shown to be complex and conflicted. They respond to the world and its many socio-political realities in all their three dimensional human-ness: jaded yet hopeful; isolated but interested; high-minded and self-centered. The sign and its message, meanwhile, are literally and figuratively two-dimensional. 

This play is about what happens inside that extra dimension. The space between propaganda and people. Between slogans and society. Between ideals and ideas. In that way, the play itself is a sort of sign: one we all might do well to stop and consider. 

- Jesse Bernstein

Sidney Brustein
Damon Bonetti

David
David Pica

Iris Brustein
Carly Zien

Wally
J Hernandez

Alton
J Paul Nicholas

Max
David Bardeen

Mavis
Jessica DalCanton

Gloria
Alanna Smith