The Negro Ensemble Company is a New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

-based theater company. Established in 1967 by playwright

Playwright

A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...

 Douglas Turner Ward

Douglas Turner Ward

Douglas Turner Ward is an American playwright, actor, director and theatrical producer best known as a founder and artistic director of the Negro Ensemble Company .-Biography:Turner was born in Burnside, Louisiana...

, producer/actor Robert Hooks

Robert Hooks

Robert Hooks is an American actor of films, television and stage. With a career as a producer and political activist to his credit, he is most recognizable to the public for his over 100 roles in films and television, as well as his political and civil rights activities...

, and theater manager Gerald S. Krone, the company focuses on themes in "black life

African American culture

African-American culture, also known as black culture, in the United States refers to the cultural contributions of Americans of African descent to the culture of the United States, either as part of or distinct from American culture. The distinct identity of African-American culture is rooted in...

".

In 2005, the ensemble was among 406 New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 arts and social service institutions to receive part of a $20 million grant from the Carnegie Corporation, which was made possible through a donation by New York City mayor

Mayor

In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....

 Michael Bloomberg

Michael Bloomberg

Michael Rubens Bloomberg is the current Mayor of New York City. With a net worth of $19.5 billion in 2011, he is also the 12th-richest person in the United States...

. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/06/nyregion/06donate.html?ex=1278302400&en=93a1beabd4ede5b8&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss http://carnegie.org/sub/news/anon2005.html

Notable alumni

• Mary Alice
  Mary Alice
  Mary Alice is an American actress.Alice was born Mary Alice Smith in Indianola, Mississippi, the daughter of Ozelar and Sam Smith. In 1987 she received a Tony for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her work in Fences...
  
  
• John Amos
  John Amos
  John Amos is an American actor and former football player. His television work includes roles in The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Good Times, the miniseries Roots, and a recurring role in The West Wing. He has also appeared on Broadway and in numerous motion pictures in a career that spans four decades...
  
  
• Ethel Ayler
  Ethel Ayler
  Ethel Ayler is a veteran African-American character actress with a career spanning over five decades.-Biography:Ayler was born in Whistler, Alabama in 1934. In 1957, she made her off-Broadway debut in the Langston Hughes musical, Simply Heavenly...
  
  
• Angela Bassett
  Angela Bassett
  Angela Evelyn Bassett is an American actress. She has become well known for her biographical film roles portraying real life women in African American culture, including singer Tina Turner in the motion picture What's Love Got to Do with It, as well as Betty Shabazz in the films Malcolm X and...
  
  
• Avery Brooks
  Avery Brooks
  Avery Franklin Brooks is an American actor, television director, jazz musician, opera singer and college professor. Brooks is perhaps best known for his television roles as Benjamin Sisko on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and as Hawk on Spenser: For Hire and its spinoff A Man Called Hawk, and in the...
  
  
• Charles Brown
  Charles Brown (actor)
  Charles Brown was a Tony Award-nominated actor and a member of New York City, New York theater troupe the Negro Ensemble Company...
  
  
• Graham Brown
  Graham Brown
  Graham Brown is an award-winning American actor best known for his work in the theatre.- Biography :Born Robert Brown in New York, New York, he is best known for his work on the stage...
  
  
• Adolph Caesar
  Adolph Caesar
  Adolph Caesar was an American actor.-Biography:Born in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, New York, he is best remembered for his role in director Norman Jewison's film, A Soldier's Story for which he received a nomination for "Best Actor in a Supporting Role" from both the Academy Awards and the...
  
  
• L. Scott Caldwell
  L. Scott Caldwell
  Laverne Scott Caldwell is an American actress known for her role as Rose on Lost.This Chicago native started her career in 1978 as a member of the famed Negro Ensemble Company, making her Broadway debut two years later in the Tony Award nominated play Home...
  
  
• Edmund Cambridge
  Edmund Cambridge
  Edmund Cambridge was an American actor and director who was a founding member of the Negro Ensemble Company and the Kilpatrick-Cambridge Theater Arts School.- Biography :...
  
  
• Godfrey Cambridge
  Godfrey Cambridge
  -External links:*...
  
  
• steve carter
  Steve Carter (playwright)
  Horace E. "Steve" Carter, Jr. is an American playwright, best known for his plays involving Caribbean immigrants living in the United States.-Biography:...
  
  
• Rosalind Cash
  Rosalind Cash
  Rosalind Cash was an American singer and actress, whose best known film role was as Charlton Heston's character's love interest Lisa, in the 1971 science fiction cult classic, The Omega Man...
  
  

• Bill Cobbs
  Bill Cobbs
  Wilbert "Bill" Cobbs is an American film and television actor. He has starred in over 120 television programs and movies.-Life and career:...
  
  
• Keith Davis
  Keith Davis
  Keith Lamont Davis is an American football safety for the Florida Tuskers of the United Football League. He was signed by the Cowboys as an undrafted free agent in 2002...
  
  
• Yaya DaCosta
• Hugh Delorey
• O. L. Duke
  O. L. Duke
  Orville Lewis Duke was an American stage, television and film actor.He was a member of the renowned Actors Studio and was the interim Artistic Director of the Negro Ensemble Company from 2002-2004...
  
  
• Judyann Elder
  Judyann Elder
  Judyann Elder is an American actress, director, and writer. She is a veteran of stage and screen who has appeared in scores of theatrical productions throughout the United States and Europe as well as popular television shows, including Family Matters, Martin, and Murphy Brown.- Biography :Judyann...
  
  
• Giancarlo Esposito
  Giancarlo Esposito
  Giancarlo Giuseppe Alessandro Esposito is a Danish-born American film and television actor and director.-Early life:Esposito was born in Copenhagen, Denmark to an Italian father and African-American mother. His mother was an opera and nightclub singer from Alabama, who once appeared on the same...
  
  
• Antonio Fargas
  Antonio Fargas
  Antonio Juan Fargas is an American actor famous for his roles in 1970s blaxploitation movies, as well as his portrayal of Huggy Bear in the 1970s TV series Starsky and Hutch.-Biography:...
  
  
• Laurence Fishburne
  Laurence Fishburne
  Laurence John Fishburne III is an American film and stage actor, playwright, director, and producer. He is perhaps best known for his roles as Morpheus in the Matrix science fiction film trilogy, as Cowboy Curtis on the 1980's television show Pee-wee's Playhouse, and as singer-musician Ike Turner...
  
  
• Frances Foster
  Frances Foster
  Frances Foster was an American film, television and stage actress. She was also an award-winning stage director.-Biography:...
  
  
• Al Freeman, Jr.
  Al Freeman, Jr.
  Al Freeman, Jr., M.Ed. is an African-American actor and director....
  
  
• Arthur French
  Arthur French (actor)
  Arthur French is an American actor and director best known for his work in the theatre.- Biography :Throughout a career that spans over fifty years, French is best known for his work on the stage. He worked extensively with the Negro Ensemble Company and has played a wide variety of roles...
  
  
• David Alan Grier
  David Alan Grier
  David Alan Grier , also known as "D.A.G." , is an American actor and comedian known for his work on the sketch comedy television show In Living Color.-Early life:...
  
  

• Moses Gunn
• Jackée Harry
  Jackée Harry
  Jacqueline Yvonne "Jackée" Harry , better known by her professional name Jackée, is an American actress and television personality, primarily known for her roles on sitcoms and other types of television shows...
  
  
• Sherman Hemsley
  Sherman Hemsley
  Sherman Alexander Hemsley is an American actor, most famous for his role as George Jefferson on the CBS television series All in the Family and The Jeffersons, and as Deacon Ernest Frye on the NBC series Amen. He also played Earl Sinclair's horrifying boss, a Triceratops named B.P...
  
  
• Kene Holliday
  Kene Holliday
  Kenneth Earl "Kene" Holliday is a prolific American character actor of stage, film, and television, best known for his role as Ben Matlock's original private investigator, Tyler Hudson, on Andy Griffith's hit television series Matlock....
  
  
• Samuel L. Jackson
  Samuel L. Jackson
  Samuel Leroy Jackson is an American film and television actor and film producer. After becoming involved with the Civil Rights Movement, he moved on to acting in theater at Morehouse College, and then films. He had several small roles such as in the film Goodfellas before meeting his mentor,...
  
  
• William Jay
  William Jay
  The Rev. William Jay was an English nonconformist divine who preached for sixty years at Argyle Chapel in Bath...
  
  
• Erik Kilpatrick
  Erik Kilpatrick
  Erik Kilpatrick is an American actor who is best known for playing Curtis Jackson on the CBS television series The White Shadow. He is the son of the late Lincoln Kilpatrick. Erik and his father co-starred in "Here's Mud in Your Eye", an episode from the first season of The White Shadow...
  
  
• Cleavon Little
  Cleavon Little
  Cleavon Jake Little was an American film and theatre actor.Little was widely known for his lead role as Sheriff Bart in the 1974 Mel Brooks comedy Blazing Saddles. He also was the irreverent Dr...
  
  
• Marcella Lowery
  Marcella Lowery
  Marcella Lowery is an American actress. She was on the television series Ghostwriter, as Jamal Jenkins's grandmother CeCe from 1992 to 1995, and played Miss Noble, the principal on City Guys from the TNBC lineup....
  
  
• Judi Ann Mason
  Judi Ann Mason
  Judi Ann Mason was an American television writer, producer and playwright.-Background:Mason was born in Bossier City, Louisiana on February 2, 1955. She excelled in English and became interested in playwrighting while in high school...
  
  
• Barbara Montgomery
  Barbara Montgomery (US actress)
  Barbara Montgomery is an American television and film actress. Montgomery is best known for her role as Cassietta Hetebrink on the sitcom, Amen, Montgomery played the role for four years, and left in 1990...
  
  
• Debbi Morgan
  Debbi Morgan
  Deborah "Debbi" Morgan is an American film and television actress. She is perhaps best known for her role as Dr. Angie Hubbard on the ABC soap opera All My Children, and for her role as The Seer in the fourth and fifth seasons of Charmed.Morgan joined the cast of The Young and the Restless as...
  
  
• Garrett Morris
  Garrett Morris
  Garrett Gonzalez Morris is an American comedian and actor from New Orleans. He was part of the original cast of the sketch comedy program Saturday Night Live, appearing from 1975 to 1980.-Early life and career:...
  
  
• Denise Nicholas
  Denise Nicholas
  Denise Nicholas is an American actress and social activist who was involved in the American Civil Rights Movement...
  
  

• Roscoe Orman
  Roscoe Orman
  Roscoe Hunter Orman is an American actor who plays Gordon Robinson on the television program Sesame Street. Orman joined the show in 1973, taking over as the third actor to play Gordon on the show...
  
  
• Shauneille Perry
• Phylicia Rashad
  Phylicia Rashad
  Phylicia Rashād is an American Tony Award winning actress and singer, best known for her role as Clair Huxtable on the long-running NBC sitcom The Cosby Show....
  
  
• Larry Riley
  Larry Riley
  Larry Riley, who has 23 years of experience in the NBA, is the General Manager of the Golden State Warriors, replacing Chris Mullin in 2009.A graduate of Chadron State with an honors degree in education, Riley was inducted into the school's Athletic Hall of Fame in 1993...
  
  
• Roxie Roker
  Roxie Roker
  Roxie Albertha Roker was an American actress, best known for her groundbreaking role as Helen Willis on the sitcom The Jeffersons, half of the first interracial couple to be shown on regular prime time television...
  
  
• Esther Rolle
  Esther Rolle
  Esther Rolle was an American actress. She was perhaps best known for her portrayal of Florida Evans on the CBS television sitcom Maude and its spin-off series Good Times.-Biography:...
  
  
• Richard Roundtree
  Richard Roundtree
  Richard Roundtree is an American actor and former fashion model. He is best known for his portrayal of private detective John Shaft in the 1971 film Shaft and in its two sequels, Shaft's Big Score and Shaft in Africa .-Personal life:Born in New Rochelle, New York, Richard Roundtree graduated from...
  
  
• Cotter Smith
  Cotter Smith
  Cotter Smith is an American stage, film, and television actor.-Biography:He was born Joseph Cotter Smith in Washington, D.C., the son of Madeline and John Lewis Smith, Jr., who was a federal judge...
  
  
• Clarice Taylor
  Clarice Taylor
  Clarice Taylor was an American stage, film and television actress.-Biography:Born in Buckingham County, Virginia, Taylor was best-known for her recurring role on television on The Cosby Show as Dr. Heathcliff "Cliff" Huxtable's mother, Anna Huxtable. She was nominated for an Emmy Award in 1986...
  
  
• Denzel Washington
  Denzel Washington
  Denzel Hayes Washington Jr. is an American actor, screenwriter, director, and film producer. He first rose to prominence when he joined the cast of the medical drama, St. Elsewhere, playing Dr...
  
  
• Lynn Whitfield
  Lynn Whitfield
  Lynn Whitfield is an American actress.Whitfield began her acting career in television and theatre, before progressing to supporting roles in film. She won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Special and a NAACP Image Award for her performance as Josephine Baker in the...
  
  
• Samm-Art Williams
  Samm-Art Williams
  Samm-Art Williams is an American playwright and screenwriter, and a stage and film/TV actor. Much of his work concerns the African-American experience....
  
  
• Victor Willis
  Victor Willis
  Victor Edward Willis is a singer, songwriter, actor; and most known as the original lead singer of the disco group Village People. His persona was the Cop and Naval Officer....
  
  
• Hattie Winston
  Hattie Winston
  Hattie Mae Winston is an American television, film and Broadway actress best known for her role as Margaret on Becker and as a prominent cast member of the PBS children's series The Electric Company.-Early career:...
  
  

Current News

The Historic Negro Ensemble Company will celebrate its repertoire of work ranging from Sundown Names and Night-Gone Things and The First Breeze of Summer by Leslie Lee, Home by Samm-Art Williams

Samm-Art Williams

Samm-Art Williams is an American playwright and screenwriter, and a stage and film/TV actor. Much of his work concerns the African-American experience....

, and Zooman and the Sign by Charles Fuller

Charles Fuller

Charles H. Fuller, Jr. is an American playwright, best known for his play, A Soldier's Play, for which he received the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.-Early years:...

 this 2008-2009 Season. Sundown Names and Night-Gone Things presented at Castillio Theatre on 42nd Street, featured TV celebrity, Nathan Purdy. The company's productions of WEBEIME and First Breeze of Summer produced by The Signature Theatre, with Leslie Uggams won several Audelco Awards. Company founder Douglas Turner Ward recently awarded Antoinette Nwandu the first Leslie Lee Award for Emerging Playwrights for her play Flat Sam at NYU/ Tisch School of the Arts. Negro Ensemble Company offices are located at 303 West 42 Street Suite 501. The company's Artistic Director is Charles Weldon, actor of Soldier's Play, Radio Golf and many others plays and films. Charles Weldon is a long time alum of NEC since the 70's. NEC's Executive Directors have included: Leon Denmark, O.L Duke and Freidsa Nerangis. Frieda Nerangis (who died in August 2010)the company's acting Executive Director is Leslie Lee; Office Managers, Beverly Summers and Anthony Jones; Design and Graphics, Kimberlyn Crawford; Director of Education and Program Development, Marie McKinney. Interns include Soyini Crenshaw, Nicholas Miles Newton, Ed Robinson. www.necinc.org webmaster, Tim Gamory; www.necartz.com webmaster and founder,Acting Instructor and founder of NEC Arts-in-Ed, NEC Rep re-launch and alum of NEC Marie McKinney.

History

The company's combination professional theater group and training program located at St. Mark's Place, started (with funds from the Ford Foundation) in 1967 , when Robert Hooks

Robert Hooks

Robert Hooks is an American actor of films, television and stage. With a career as a producer and political activist to his credit, he is most recognizable to the public for his over 100 roles in films and television, as well as his political and civil rights activities...

 knocked down the walls of his village apartment to teach young actors like Hattie Winston. Original members of the Resident Company in 1968 were: Frances Foster

Frances Foster

Frances Foster was an American film, television and stage actress. She was also an award-winning stage director.-Biography:...

, Rosalind Cash

Rosalind Cash

Rosalind Cash was an American singer and actress, whose best known film role was as Charlton Heston's character's love interest Lisa, in the 1971 science fiction cult classic, The Omega Man...

, William Jay Marshall, Arthur French, Esther Rolle

Esther Rolle

Esther Rolle was an American actress. She was perhaps best known for her portrayal of Florida Evans on the CBS television sitcom Maude and its spin-off series Good Times.-Biography:...

, Clarice Taylor

Clarice Taylor

Clarice Taylor was an American stage, film and television actress.-Biography:Born in Buckingham County, Virginia, Taylor was best-known for her recurring role on television on The Cosby Show as Dr. Heathcliff "Cliff" Huxtable's mother, Anna Huxtable. She was nominated for an Emmy Award in 1986...

, Allie Woods, Hattie Winston, Anita Wilson, Mari Toussaint, Samuel Blue, Jr, Damon Brazwell, Norman Bush and Julius Harris

Julius Harris

Julius W. Harris was an American actor who appeared in more than 70 movies and numerous television series in a career that spanned four decades.-Early life and career:...

; production stage manager, Edmund Cambridge

Edmund Cambridge

Edmund Cambridge was an American actor and director who was a founding member of the Negro Ensemble Company and the Kilpatrick-Cambridge Theater Arts School.- Biography :...

 and stage manager, James S. Lucas. Original Training Program Faculty were: John Blair, Lonne Elder, Margaret Harris, Luther James, Louis Johnson, Kristin Linklater, Ron Mack, Paul Mann, Lloyd Richards

Lloyd Richards

Lloyd George Richards was a Canadian-American theatre director, actor, and dean of the Yale School of Drama from 1979 to 1991, and Yale University professor emeritus.- Biography :...

, Michael A. Schultz, Charles Vincent; Assistants: steve carter

Steve Carter (playwright)

Horace E. "Steve" Carter, Jr. is an American playwright, best known for his plays involving Caribbean immigrants living in the United States.-Biography:...

, Robbie McCauley, Cleo Quitman, Gloria Schultz. By 1969, the company had won the Drama Desk Award

Drama Desk Award

The Drama Desk Awards, which are given annually in a number of categories, are the only major New York theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway compete against each other in the same category...

, Vernon Rice Award, Lambda Kappa Mu Citation, Brandeis University Creative Arts Award and the Tony Award

Tony Award

The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...

. Since then the Theater moved to Theatre 4 on 55th St between 9th and 10 Avenues in NYC with many acclaimed alumni, like Angela Bassett

Angela Bassett

Angela Evelyn Bassett is an American actress. She has become well known for her biographical film roles portraying real life women in African American culture, including singer Tina Turner in the motion picture What's Love Got to Do with It, as well as Betty Shabazz in the films Malcolm X and...

, Keith David

Keith David

Keith David Williams , better known as Keith David, is an American film, television, voice actor, and singer. He is perhaps most known for his live-action roles in such films as Crash, There's Something About Mary, Barbershop and Men at Work...

, Adolph Caesar

Adolph Caesar

Adolph Caesar was an American actor.-Biography:Born in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, New York, he is best remembered for his role in director Norman Jewison's film, A Soldier's Story for which he received a nomination for "Best Actor in a Supporting Role" from both the Academy Awards and the...

, Graham Brown

Graham Brown

Graham Brown is an award-winning American actor best known for his work in the theatre.- Biography :Born Robert Brown in New York, New York, he is best known for his work on the stage...

, Samuel L. Jackson

Samuel L. Jackson

Samuel Leroy Jackson is an American film and television actor and film producer. After becoming involved with the Civil Rights Movement, he moved on to acting in theater at Morehouse College, and then films. He had several small roles such as in the film Goodfellas before meeting his mentor,...

, Delroy Lindo

Delroy Lindo

Delroy George Lindo is an English actor and theatre director. Lindo has been nominated for the Tony and Screen Actors Guild awards and has won a Satellite Award...

, Carol Maillard, Michelle Shay, L. Scott Caldwell, Phylicia Rashad

Phylicia Rashad

Phylicia Rashād is an American Tony Award winning actress and singer, best known for her role as Clair Huxtable on the long-running NBC sitcom The Cosby Show....

, Barbara Montgomery, Ching Valdez, Count Stovall, Charles Weldon, Malik Yoba

Malik Yoba

Abdul-Malik Kashie Yoba , better known by his stage name Malik Yoba, is an American actor and occasional singer. He is perhaps best known for his starring role as NYPD Detective J.C. Williams on the FOX police drama series New York Undercover or as Yul Brenner in Cool Runnings...

, Laurence Fishburne

Laurence Fishburne

Laurence John Fishburne III is an American film and stage actor, playwright, director, and producer. He is perhaps best known for his roles as Morpheus in the Matrix science fiction film trilogy, as Cowboy Curtis on the 1980's television show Pee-wee's Playhouse, and as singer-musician Ike Turner...

, Lou Gossett, Jr., designers: Judy Dearing, Myrna Collie Lee, Charles McClennahan, Shirley Pendergast, Marie McKinney, Ves Weaver, Lisa Watson.The "NEC Monthly Meet was launched in 2009 (by Marie McKinney)at The Riverside Church , in an effort empower professional actors, writers, directors, and technical professionals to meet, partner, create and perform on an on going basis. Participants in the NEC Monthly Meets receive free training in arts business and management, arts skills and career development on teams and meet with key artist service organization staff.
NEC's award winning instructors: Leslie Lee, Erik Kilpatrick, Marie McKinney, Laurence Holder and other experts provide training in acting, play writing, traditional arts and culture, and business skills. Techniques based on Michael Chekhov, Bea Richards, Cicely Berry, Stella Adler, Stanislavsky methods are used to expand the professional actor's abilities in character development, voice production and articulation, dramaturgy, period work, dialects, classic world literature, and improvisation. Like the original NEC Training program, current workshops and labs explore basic elements of African, Native and Latin Dance and music, martial arts. NEC Training Program participants are encouraged to do weekly field research exploring the African's role in world history through field trips to collect samples of dialects and living culture in action, also fact finding at research libraries and museums. Their finds are shared with the group to give the actors a variety of tools to powerfully express their unique voice. The NEC Classic Play Readings come from original works by emerging playwrights in both The NEC Training Program's Play Writing and Acting Workshops and the NEC archives. The NEC Archives features brilliant known and lesser known writers like: Paul Carter Harrison, Alice Childress, Derek Walcott, Ed Bullins, Gail Davis, Charles Fuller, Pearl Cleage, Douglas Turner Ward, Leslie Lee, Maggie Lee Hunkins, Ali Walduo, Joseph A Walker, Lennox Brown, Steve Carter, Hal DeWindt, Ron Milner, Loften Mitchell, Peter Weiss, Yvette Evsns, Trevor Rhone. Plays from the NE Archives and Emerging Actor's and Playwrights from The NEC Training Program are presented regularly.
NEC's Arts-in-Education program founded by O.L Duke, Robert Whaley and Marie McKinney features classic shows and residencies facilitated by professional performers for elementary, middle and high school students in the NYC public school system. 10-20 week Residencies are custom designed to augment the school's curriculum, through hands-on participation in artistic, literary and technical skills. Students created TV productions including original music, writing and choreography were aired on MNN cable network, live performances, newsletters and middle school students were included in on-the job training.The website www.necartz.com was started in August 2008 to connect professional performing artists with resources to produce their work as creative entrepreneurs. Information on grants and opportunities, artist service organizations, events, workshops, articles, social networking and other resources are included on www.necartz.comand during NEC Monthly Meets at Riverside, founded and facilitated by Marie McKinney. Internships and on the job training are available at the Negro Ensemble Company offices.
The Following is a quote from Douglas Turner Ward

Douglas Turner Ward

Douglas Turner Ward is an American playwright, actor, director and theatrical producer best known as a founder and artistic director of the Negro Ensemble Company .-Biography:Turner was born in Burnside, Louisiana...

in the New York Times August 14, 1966:
"If any hope, outside of chance individual fortune, exists for Negro playwrights as a group - or, for that matter, Negro actors and other theater craftsmen - the most immediate, pressing, practical absolutely minimally essential active first step is the development of a permanent Negro company of at least off-Broadway size and dimension.Not in the future, but now.
"A theater evolving not out of negative need, but positive potential; better equipped to employ existing talents and spur the development of future ones. A theater whose justification is not the gap it fills, but the achievement it aspires toward - no less high than any other comparable theater company of present of past world fame.
"A theater concentrating primarily on themes of Negro life, but also resilient enough to incorporate and interpret the best of world drama - whatever the source. A theater of permanence, continuity, providing the necessary home-base for the Negro artist to launch a campaign to win his ignored brothers and sisters as constant witnesses to his endeavors...so might the Negro, a most potential agent of vitality infuse life into the moribund corpus of American theater."

External links

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