Photo Coverage: Salute to the New Federal Theatre

Launched in the basement of the Lower East Side's St. Augustine's Episcopal Church, New Federal Theatre has gone on to international acclaim for its bold mission to integrate minorities and women into the main stream of American theater by training artists for the profession and by presenting plays by minorities and women to integrated, multi-cultural audiences -- plays which evoke the truth through beautiful artistic recreations of ourselves.

The alumni list of NFT productions reads like a Who's Who of American theater, film and television: Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman, Debbie Allen, Phylicia Rashad, Jackee Harry, Laurence Fishburne, Dick Anthony Williams, Glynn Turman, Taurean Blacque, Debbie Morgan, Robert Downey Jr., Garrett Morris, Lynn Whitfield, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Ruby Dee, Ella Joyce, Leslie Uggams, Samuel L. Jackson and scores more.

Under Woodie King Jr.'s stewardship NFT and the National Black Touring Circuit have presented over 180 productions in the last three and a half decades including: For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf, What the Winesellers Buy, Reggae, The Taking of Miss Janie and Dance and the Railroad. His directorial credits are extensive and include work in film as well as in theater. He has directed at the most prominent theaters across the country and has been the recipient of numerous awards from Audelco, the NAACP, Drama Critics Circle and an Obie Award for Sustained Achievement.

Photos by: Carmen de Jesus & John Wegorzewski

Gerald Schoenfeld.jpg" /> The Shubert Organizations Gerald Schoenfeld Co-Host Lyn Whitfield with the ladies of Sweet Honey in the Rock NFT Honoree, Actress, Playwright, Composer Micki Grant at NFT event John Wegorzewski with White Choclate Star Lynn Whitfield at NFT Three Great Ladies of the Stage - Hattie Winston, S. Epatha Merkerson and Barbara Montgomery Edward Callaghan with singer musician Barry Johnson who performed at the event Reginald Vel Johnson with S Epatha Merkerson.JPG" /> Reginald Vel Johnson with S. Epatha Merkerson Woodie King Jr.JPG" /> Woodie King Jr.