Post-Show Discussion Activity

Use these questions to reflect, discuss, or journal about your experience and reactions to Big White Fog! Explore any of the questions that interest you.

If engaging in this activity independently, consider taking notes or writing your reflections down. If engaging in this activity with a class or group, decide if you would like to answer every question in order, skip around, or select certain questions to spend time on. 

Discussion Questions

1. The characters in the play all seem to have different strategies to deal with, and hopefully overcome, the poverty, racism, and lack of opportunity they face. What different paths do these characters choose? What do the outcomes say about America, the American Dream, and what it means to be Black in the United States? 
2. How do the many family members in this play serve to illustrate the variety and commonalities in the Black community’s struggle in America, particularly in the 1920s? 
3. This play is ambitious, with 17 actors and a plot that spans a decade. How does Court Theatre’s production illustrate the Mason family’s deep descent into poverty over the years through design? How do the play and actors illustrate the passage of time, generally? 
4. The audience sees multiple layers of family conflict. How does colorism live out and degrade the Mason family? 
5. Vic purchases stock in the Black Star Line against the wishes of many in his family. What does it mean to prioritize an ideal over an immediate need? In what cases is this justified? 
6. Wanda desires nice things and a comfortable life that comes from financial independence. She becomes the family’s only hope to stay in their home, but is then shamed and degraded for her efforts. How does this speak to the way Black women are viewed in society? 
7. How do the Mason family’s economic struggles lead to Lester’s Lester’s involvement in communism and coalition building? 
8. There are two Jewish characters in Big White Fog. What role do they serve in the story? How do they differ from one another? 
9. The title comes from a line of Lester’s in Act I, scene II, which Vic tries to repeat as he is dying. “Seems like the world ain’t nothing but a big white fog, and we can’t see no light nowhere!” What does this quote mean? What do you think it would take for this fog to lift? 
10. Big White Fog can be considered the blueprint for Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, another play about a Black family on the South Side, produced by Court Theatre in the 2024/25 season. What parallels or archetypes exist between the Mason and Younger families? How do their struggles persist or evolve over the course of the 20-30 years between when these plays take place?

---

• This activity aligns with the following standards:
  • lllinois Arts Learning Standards 
    • Anchor Standard 7: Perceive and analyze artistic work.
    • Anchor Standard 8: Construct meaningful interpretations of artistic work.
    • Anchor Standard 11: Relate artistic ideas and works with societal, cultural, and historical context to deepen understanding.
  • Common Core State Standards 
    • CCSS.ELA.SL.1 Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
    • CCSS.ELA.RL.3  Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.

Posted on September 10, 2025 in Learning Guides, Productions