Courtesy of @Crossroadstheatrecompany/IG

On February 20th, 2021 Douglas Turner Ward (playwright, actor, director, and theatrical producer) a pillar in the Black theatre community passed away. Ward founded The Negro Ensemble Company with Robert Hooks and Gerald Krone in 1967. By the time Ward had come together with Krone and Hooks to create The Negro Ensemble Company, he had already been on Broadway in the original 1959 cast of A Raisin in The Sun. He was cast in a small role while understudying Sidney Portier. In the mid 1960s Ward created a play called Day of Absence that was about Black people disappearing from a southern town. In the production, Black actors wore whiteface makeup in order to play white characters left alone without their Black neighbors, and it showcased Ward’s scathing satirical humor when it came to writing. The production was accompanied by an article in The New York Times written by Ward titled “American Theater: For Whites Only?” The article called for a Black repertory theatre company. A year after the production, a grant in the amount of $434,000, was awarded to Ward and with the funds, The Negro Ensemble Company was created with Ward as the Artistic Director and Krone and Hooks in other leadership roles.

“Just to lighten up the heavy political raps, I started writing primarily satirical things.  And, ultimately wrote my first performance piece. It was called Star of Liberty, concerning the rebel slave Nat Turner. This little play, which was only a half hour long, was performed before an audience of nearly 5,000 people at a rally. Well, the response to this play at the rally was very thrilling. I was nineteen years old when I wrote this piece and that led me in the direction of trying to write more directly for the theatre.  Because up until then, I’d been messing around with short stories and other genres.  Sports writing had been my primary interest, but now drama was beginning to take the focus.”

The Negro Ensemble Company has a notable roster of alumni such as Debbie Allen, John Amos, Angela Bassett, Roscoe Lee Browne, Adolph Caesar, Godfrey Cambridge, Rosalind Cash, Keith David, Giancarlo Esposito, Antonio Fargas, Laurence Fishburne, Frances Foster, Al Freeman, Jr., Danny Glover, Louis Gossett, Jr., David Alan Grier, Moses Gunn, Jackée Harry, Sherman Hemsley, Kene Holliday, Samuel L. Jackson, Cleavon Little, Delroy Lindo, S. Epatha Merkerson, Debbi Morgan, Garrett Morris, Denise Nicholas, Ron O’Neal, Phylicia Rashad, Esther Rolle, Richard Roundtree, Clarice Taylor, Glynn Turman, Denzel Washington, and Lynn Whitfield, and many more. His 1981 production of A Soldier’s Play, who’s original cast included David Allen Grier, Denzel Washington, and Samuel L. Jackson was revived in January 2020 and has earned 7 pending Tony nominations. In the years after it’s founding The Negro Ensemble Company produced some important works such as The River Niger, written by Joseph A. Walker, which later opened on Broadway and won the 1974 Tony Award for best play, with Ward as director and performer. There was a 1976 film adaptation that starred Cicely Tyson, James Earl Jones and Louis Gossett, Jr.

 

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Ward was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame in 1996 and has won many awards over his career such as an Obie, a Tony, and a Drama Desk Award. The Negro Ensemble Company earned a special Tony award.

The post You Should Know: Douglas Turner Ward and The Negro Ensemble Company appeared first on Broadway Black.

Born and raised in New York, French began his career in community theater. It wasn’t long before he was also performing in street plays in Harlem for Amiri Baraka’s Black Arts Repertory Theater. In 1967 French was one of the founding members of the Negro Ensemble Company. His career however, was not limited to theater. He also has appeared in such notable films as “Malcolm X”, “Crooklyn”, “Car Wash”, “Round Midnight”and “Kinsey”, and on television programs such as “Law and Order”.

In light of his contributions to theatre, Actor’s Equity Association has named him the 2015 recipient of the Paul Robeson Citation award.

BRAVO to the great Arthur French who will receive the Actors' Equity Foundation 2015 Paul Robeson Citation Award http://t.co/UKjFOYJhi3

— Actors' Equity (@ActorsEquity) October 9, 2015

French joins other notable recipients of the award such as Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, Maya Angelou and Sidney Poitier, among others. According to the website,

Created in 1971, the award honors individuals or organizations that best exemplify and practice the principles to which Mr. Robeson devoted his life:  dedication to the universal brotherhood of all humankind, commitment to the freedom of conscience and of expression, belief in the artist’s responsibility to society, respect for the dignity of the individual and concern for and service to all humans of any race or nationality.

Actors’ Equity Association is the U.S. labor union that represents more than 50,000 Actors and Stage Managers. Equity seeks to foster the art of live theatre as an essential component of society and advances the careers of its members by negotiating wages, working conditions and providing a wide range of benefits, including health and pension plans.  Actor’s Equity Association has committed to “…present annual citations to the individual or organization that, during the preceding year or years, best exemplified and practiced the principles and ideals of the great humanitarian, Paul Robeson.”

French will be presented with the award at 2:00 pm on Friday, October 16, 2015 at the Eastern Regional Membership Meeting of Actors’ Equity Association.  We are thrilled to express our appreciation to Arthur French for his contribution to Black Broadway and our congratulations on receiving this well deserved award!

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Douglas Turner Ward, who understudied Sidney Poitier in the historical play and took over the role as Walter Lee Younger in the show’s national tour, penned a manifesto published in The New York Times that addressed the color barriers in American theatre. His opinion piece, titled “American Theatre: For Whites Only,” published just a few years after the Supreme Court declared segregation of public schools and thereby public facilities, unconstitutional– shed light on the non-existent space for African-American theatre artists.  

A theatre evolving not out of negative need, but positive potential; better equipped to employ existing talents and spur the development of future ones. A theatre whose justification is not the gap it fills, but the achievement it aspires towards— no less high than any other comparable theatre company of present or past world fame.

The article caught the attention of W. McNeil Lowery at the Ford Foundation, who encouraged Ward to apply for a grant to build the type of theatre he described in his essay. Ward was awarded $434,000 and along with fellow castmate, Robert Hook and theatre manager Gerald Krone the Negro Ensemble Company (NEC) was founded in the summer of 1967. Ward and other black writers would now have a platform to showcase their work and young black actors, like the ones who worked with Hooks, were given the opportunity to play complex characters with depth and originality.   

The inaugural season opened with Peter Weiss’ Song of the Lusitanian Bogey in 1968. NEC received criticism on both sides of the racial spectrum. Members of the black community were critical of the NEC employing white staff, playwrights, and funders. NEC continued to serve the African-American theatre talent pool, mentoring the likes of Louis Gossett Jr., Sherman Hemsley, Denzel Washington, Samuel L. Jackson, Laurence Fishburne, Phylicia Rashad, Delroy Lindo and Angela Bassett.

Brent Jennings, Steven Anthony Jones, Eugene Lee, Denzel Washington, Samuel L. Jackson, James Pickens and Peter Friedman in the 1981 Negro Ensemble Company production of A Soldier’s Play.

Even though the NEC broke barriers for many Black actors, directors and playwrights, box-office sales suffered. In the 1972-73 season the resident company was disbanded and major cut-backs of training programs, salaries and productions occurred. The NEC would now only produce one play a year.

In 1974 NEC made its Broadway debut with The River Niger by Joseph Walker that took home a Tony Award for Best Play and went on a national tour. The success of The River Niger bought the NEC more time, and in 1981 A Soldier’s Play by Charles Fuller won the Outer Critics’ Circle Best Off-Broadway Play, the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best American Play, the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and was later turned into a three-time Academy Award nominated movie.

Ward left the company in 2002. O.L. Duke took his place from 2002-2004 and now Charles Weldon stands at the helm of the historic landmark. Weldon expanded the theatre’s education programs by offering video production, commercial theatre management, producing, advertising and public school training. NEC currently offers workshops in basic acting, actors intensive, playwriting, dance and movement and more.
In January 2015 Weldon was quoted in an article published in Newsweek explaining why he continues to persevere and maintain the company. For him, it means that he gets “to hold on to history. A history that was great. A history that so many great people were a part of.”

The post The Negro Ensemble Company Blazed Trails for Black Theatre appeared first on Broadway Black.

Broadway Black stars have shown up and show out this year!

Tony Award winner Tonya Pinkins (Caroline, or Change, Jelly’s Last Jam) is the 2013 celebrity co-chair, along with actor Dorien Wilson (The Parkers).  Pinkins will also perform her new solo show Tonya Pinkins: Unplugged.

Tony nominees S. Epatha Merkerson (Come Back, Little Sheba, The Piano Lesson) and Paul Tazewell (A Streetcar Named Desire, The Color Purple) are among the 2013 NBTF honorees

The legendary Tony Award winning Lillias White (Dreamgirls, Fela!) will perform BIG MAYBELLE: Soul of the Blues, written and directed by Paul Levine.

Two-time Tony Award nominee André De Shields (The Wiz, Ain’t Misbehavin’) will star in Woodie King Jr.’s New Federal Theatre production of Knock Me a Kiss.

Chester Gregory (Sister Act, Hairspray) is back with his new play The Eve of Jackie: A Tribute to Jackie Wilson.

Actor and Playwright Regina Taylor’s (I‘ll Fly Away, The Unit) gospel musical Crowns will be staged by the North Carolina Black Repertory Company

Rain Pryor will perform her off-Broadway hit Fried Chicken & Latkas.

The Negro Ensemble Company presents Women in the Pit starring the 2013 NBTF Sidney Poitier Lifelong Achievement Award Recipient Hal Williams (227, Sanford & Son).

Tony Award nominated Norm Lewis (Porgy & Bess, Les Misérables) and Hattie Winston (The Tap Dance Kid, Hair) are also in attendance along with many other film and television stars.

For more information about the National Black Theatre Festival visit: www.NBTF.org

We’re actually here at the festival this year and we’ll be bringing to reviews and sightings here! Check our instagram as well!

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