THE NEGRO ENSEMBLE COMPANY: A BRIEF HISTORY


Negro Ensemble Company founding trio: Robert Hooks, Douglas Turner Ward, and Gerald Krone


In 1966, Douglas Turner Ward, Robert Hooks, and Gerald Krone began to work on their vision for a groundbreaking, inclusive space in the theatre: a permanent home where Black theatre artists could have agency over projects made for them, by them, and about them. With Ward writing, Hooks raising money, and Krone managing, the trio produced two new plays (Happy Ending and Day of Absence) off-Broadway at the St. Marks Playhouse in Greenwich Village—to fantastic critical success. Running for 504 performances and winning Ward an Obie Award for acting and a Drama Desk Award for writing, the plays also drew the attention of the New York Times, who invited Ward to write on American theatre’s exclusivity problem and the future of Black theatre artists in the industry. Ward took the opportunity to publish a manifesto arguing for the establishment of a resident Black theatre company, and with a $1 million grant from the Ford Foundation, the Negro Ensemble Company was born.


The company—which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2017—has since been a powerhouse in training and presenting outstanding Black artists. “There is no way we could survive except by being excellent,” Ward says, and the Negro Ensemble Company’s list of alumni provides ample evidence: Denzel Washington, Laurence Fishburne, Samuel L. Jackson, S. Epatha Merkerson, Adolph Caesar, LaTanya Richardson-Jackson, Garrett Morris, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Billy Dee Williams, and Lou Gossett Jr., to name just a few. Overall, the Negro Ensemble Company has been home to more than four thousand artists from every theatre practice and background, producing over


two hundred new plays and creating an extensive theatrical training program to solidify its commitment to inclusive arts education.


Though critically acclaimed and raising some of the most trailblazing questions of its time, the Negro Ensemble Company ran into a number of economic troubles and had to disband its resident company during the 1972-1973 season. This led to the difficult decision of downsizing to only one new play produced per year. Luckily, that first new play was The River Niger by Joe Walker, presenting a fresh, potent, and tender perspective on the struggles of a Black family from Harlem. The River Niger was the first Negro Ensemble Company production to move to Broadway, where it ran just under 300 performances and won the Tony Award®


for Best Play. The popularity of the production


ensured the Negro Ensemble Company’s financial well-being for the next 10 years, when it debuted Pulitzer Prize-winning A Soldier’s Play—their most successful play to date.


Today, the Negro Ensemble Company continues to strive towards its mission of presenting theatre by, for, and about Black people to a historically underserved audience, partnering with companies like the Signature Theatre (2008-2009 Residency) to produce and teach. Their mission remains the same: to “provide African-American, African, and Caribbean professional artists with an opportunity to learn, to work, and to grow and to be nurtured in the performing arts.”•


A SOLDIER'S PLAY UPSTAGE GUIDE


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