A major focus of ANT was to show a wider array of stories and storytelling that was seldom seen whenever Black artists were on stage. This led to the productions of several original plays as well as adaptations of existing classic and contemporary works for all-Black casts. Their first major success came in 1944 when Anna Lucasta by Phillip Yordan debuted on Broadway starring Hilda Simms and Frederick O’Neal. It was ANT’s first all-Black play with a non-racial theme and went on to a national tour, a production in London, and a film in 1958 starring Eartha Kitt and Sammy Davis, Jr..

Financial issues and artistic difficulties brought the unfortunate demise of ANT by the mid-1950s, yet the legacy and revolutionary spirit had only just begun. The American Negro Theater was the beginning for many amazing artists such as Vinie Burrows, Harry Belafonte, Alice Childress, Ruby Dee, Sidney Poitier, Isabel Sanford, and many other dynamic actors, directors, and playwrights. It is because of these artists that we can do more today. Happy Anniversary!

Check out the exhibition at The Schomburg Center in celebration of the 75th anniversary of our renowned American Negro Theatre (ANT).

Known to the locals as “The Harlem Library Little Theatre,” the ANT was founded in 1940 as a community space for thespians to work in productions that illustrated the diversity of black life. This exhibition is taken entirely from the Schomburg Collections and highlights the ANT’s stage productions from 1940 through 1949 with photographs, posters, playbills, and news clippings. Images include scenes from successful plays such as Anna Lucasta, studio workshops, and radio broadcasts featuring prominent talent whose careers began at the ANT. The exhibition is located in the Theatre, and is open 10:00 – 6:00, M, F, S, and 10:00 – 8:00, T, W, Th.

Now through January 2016

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture 

515 Malcolm X Boulevard New York, NY, 10037 (917) 275-6975

The post 75th Anniversary of the American Negro Theatre appeared first on Broadway Black.

Tyson made her Broadway debut in Jolly’s Progress (1959) as Eartha Kitt’s understudy. She went on to appear in other Broadway shows including Tiger Tiger Burning Bright (1962), A Hand Is On The Gate (1966), Carry Me Back To Morningside Heights (1968), The Corn is Green (1983), and in 1974, she hosted the 28th Annual Tony Awards.

In 1961, Ms. Tyson appeared in Jean Genet’s The Blacks, the longest running off-Broadway non-musical of that decade (1,408 performances). The Blacks boasted a cast of soon-to-be legends of the arts like James Earl Jones, Maya Angelou, Louis Gossett, Jr., and Roscoe Lee Browne.

It wasn’t until 2013 that Tyson won a Tony Award (Best Actress in a Play) for her performance as Miss Carrie Watts in Horton Foote’s The Trip to Bountiful.

That year she also won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play and the Outer Critics Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play, for Bountiful.

Tyson boasts a beyond impressive television and film resume, as well. Most recently she was seen in the ABC hit How To Get Away with Murder, playing Ophelia Hartness, Annalise’s mother. Annalise is played by Tony-winner Viola Davis (2001, Best Featured Actress in a Play, King Hedley II and 2010, Best Actress in a Play, Fences). Other TV credits include The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, Roots, King, A Woman Called Moses, The Women of Brewster Place, and Law and Order: SVU.

On film she has been seen in Sounder, The River Niger, Bustin’ Loose, Fried Green Tomatoes, and The Help, to name a few.

We here are Broadway Black salute you, Miss Tyson! We honor you! We thank you! You are TRULY a Black (girl) who ROCKS.

Black Girls Rock airs Sunday, April 5th, 2015 at 7p/6c on BET,
hosted by Tracee Ellis Ross and Regina King.

We’ll be tuning in! Hope you will be, too.

The post Black Girls Rock Will Honor Cicely Tyson appeared first on Broadway Black.