In 1950, the young Sidney Poitier made his Hollywood debut playing a Black doctor in No Way Out. Eight years later he became the first Black actor to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Actor (for his role in The Defiant Ones). And in 1964, he became the first Black actor to win that award (for his role in Lilies of the Field). Poitier died in 2022 at age 94, a revered actor, a successful director, and a much loved man. Ryan Calais Cameron’s new play, Retrograde, dramatizes the early uncertainty in Poitier’s ascent to stardom. Set in the 1950s, the plot concerns the pressures Poitier faced from racist film executives who offered him compromising contracts. In the world premiere, on at Kiln Theatre, Ivanno Jeremiah stars as Poitier. —Jensen Davis