The co-production of A Raisin in the Sun by Dallas Theatre Center and Great Lakes Theatre Festival, popular in its January-February Texas staging, begins previews in the north March 18, at Cleveland's Ohio Theatre.

The remount in Cleveland opens March 20 after previews and continues to April 3.

Emerging in the 1959-60 season, A Raisin in the Sun was the first Broadway play by an African-American woman, Lorraine Hansberry. L. Kenneth Richardson's revival staging features Irma P. Hall as Mama and Billy Eugene Jones as her grasping-for-success son, Walter Lee. A snapshot of black yearning and conflict 40 years ago, the play tells of Mama's attempts to use an insurance windfall to take her family out of the city -- and her son's wish to open a liquor store.

Also in the Cleveland company are Ron Dortch, Yvette Ganier, Nathan Hinton, Luis A. Laporte Jr., Micheal Pitts, Mark Gates, Gary Taggart and April Yvette Thompson.

Designers are Donald Eastman (sets), Michael Alan Stein (costumes) and Frances Aronson (lighting designer). Director Richardson is co-founder of Crossroads Theatre Company, the largest black theatre company in the country. As artistic director at Crossroads, he directed 60 productions, including Paul Robeson with Avery Brooks and the world premiere of The Colored Museum.

The Dallas Theatre Center run (at the Kalita Humphreys Theatre) had a slightly different supporting cast and ran Jan. 13-Feb. 14. The staging in Dallas was extended a week past its Feb. 7 close, to Feb. 14.

Tickets are $17-$38. The Ohio Theatre is at Playhouse Square in Cleveland. For ticket information, call (216) 241-6000.

-- By Kenneth Jones