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19 unusual facts about Negro Ensemble Company


A Soldier's Story

Most of the cast came from Broadway careers, but only Adolph Caesar, Denzel Washington, and William Allen Young appeared in both the movie and the original off-Broadway play with the Negro Ensemble Company in the New York version.

August Strindberg Repertory Theatre

The August Strindberg Repertory Theatre became the resident company at the Gene Frankel Theatre in New York City's East Village when it transferred its first production, Strindberg's Playing with Fire (co-produced by the Negro Ensemble Company), there in June 2012 after an initial run at the New School's theater in the West Village.

Ceremonies in Dark Old Men

Ceremonies in Dark Old Men is a play by Lonne Elder III that premiered Off Broadway at St. Mark's Playhouse in a production by the Negro Ensemble Company in 1969.

Darrell M. Smith

After finishing his studies he went on to do numerous off-broadway plays, such as with "The Potomac Theatre Company" in Washington D.C. and with the "Negro Ensemble Theatre Company" in New York.

Douglas Turner Ward

In 1967, he was one of the founders of the Negro Ensemble Company and served for many years as its artistic director.

Douglas Turner Ward (May 5, 1930) is an American playwright, actor, director and theatrical producer best known as a founder and artistic director of the Negro Ensemble Company (NEC).

Edith Oliver

By covering theatrical companies like the Negro Ensemble Company, Café La Mama and the New Federal Theater, she provided them with visibility and support they would not have had otherwise.

Edmund Cambridge

Edmund Cambridge (September 18, 1920 – August 18, 2001) was an American actor and director who was a founding member of the Negro Ensemble Company (NEC) and the Kilpatrick-Cambridge Theater Arts School.

In 1968 he joined Robert Hooks, Douglas Turner Ward and several other actors to start the Negro Ensemble Company.

Erik Kilpatrick

Today, Kilpatrick devotes much of his time acting and directing for the Negro Ensemble Company, an acting troupe based out of New York City composed mainly of African-Americans.

Frances Foster

She was a founding member of the Negro Ensemble Company and between 1967 and 1986 appeared in over 25 of its productions.

Horacena J. Taylor

Starting in the early 1970s, Taylor has worked extensively as a stage manager on numerous productions for the Negro Ensemble Company (NEC) including The Sty of the Blind Pig, The First Breeze of Summer and The Brownsville Raid.

Judyann Elder

She began her professional career in New York off-Broadway as a founding member of and resident actor with the Tony Award-winning Negro Ensemble Company.

L. Scott Caldwell

Her class went to see a performance of A Day of Absence, featuring Douglas Turner Ward, a co-founder of The Negro Ensemble Company.

Born Laverne Scott in Chicago, she 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.

Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs

Afterward, he studied acting with the world famous Negro Ensemble Company and the Al Fann Theatrical Ensemble.

Paul Carter Harrison

While teaching at California State University, Sacramento (1970–1972), Harrison conceived and directed Melvin Van Peebles' "Ain't Supposed To Die a Natural Death" prior to its Broadway production, and wrote his play The Great MacDaddy which was produced by the Negro Ensemble Company in 1973, and won an Obie Award.

Robert Hooks

Most famously, Hooks, along with Douglas Turner Ward,founded The Negro Ensemble Company (NEC).

Victor Willis

With training in acting and dance, he went to New York and joined the prestigious Negro Ensemble Company.