Negro Ensemble Company News

French's many Broadway credits include The Trip To Bountiful, Dividing The Estate, Mule Bone, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Design For Living, You Can’t Take It With You, Death Of A Salesman, The Iceman Cometh, The River Niger, Ain’t Supposed To Die A Natural Death, and All God’s Chillun Got Wings.

The Tony Awards Administration Committee has announced that they will present the 2020 Tony Honors for Excellence in the Theatre to four outstanding contributors to the Broadway industry - Fred Gallo, President of PRG Scenic Technologies; Broadway press agent Irene Gandy; stage manager Beverly Jenkins and New Federal Theatre, Woodie King, Jr. Founder.

American Stage describes the upcoming adaptation as a 'refresh with a new adaptation where Phileas Fogg and Jean Passpartout make a mad dash around the world and meet colorful characters along their journey.'

BSC's Black Voices Matter's June Artist of the Month is Cris Eli Blak for HOPE: Living as a Black Man in America.

This week (June 14-20) in live streaming: Rita Moreno visits Backstage Live, Show of Titles on demand, a Kerry Butler master class, a Guys and Dolls reunion, and so much more!

Woodie King Jr.'s New Federal Theatre will present 'Jimmy's Last Night At Mikell's' by Larry Muhammad as part of its annual Ntozake Shange Reading Series on June 22 at 7:00 PM.

BroadwayWorld is saddened to report that playwright and performance artist Robbie McCauley died last week in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Woodie King's New Federal Theatre has set plays by Mustapha Matura, S. Shephard-Massat and Larry Muhammad for the June, 2021 edition of its Annual Ntozake Shange Readings Series, which will be held three Tuesdays in June--June 8, 15 and 22-- all in live streamed readings on Zoom.

Roundabout Theatre Company is presenting The Refocus Project, a multi-year project to elevate and restore marginalized plays to the American canon. On Friday, April 30 the project will launch with Samm-Art Williams’ 90-minute drama HOME directed by Roundabout’s Senior Resident Director Kenny Leon.

Theatre Communications Group has announced the 2021 TCG 60th Anniversary Gala: Our Stories will be held virtually on Tuesday, May 18, 2021 at 7:30pm ET with an afterparty to follow. The Gala will honor Ricardo Khan and the Performing Arts Alliance, and both the Gala and virtual live afterparty will be hosted by drag superstar Shequida. 

With live audience events finally able to return to New York art houses, 'Used and Borrowed Time,' written and directed by Sophia Romma, will have its red carpet world premiere May 7 at 7:00 PM at Quad Cinema, 34 West 13th Street in Greenwich Village.

For more than four decades, The St. Louis Black Rep’s founder and Producing Director, Ron Himes has dedicated his life to staging productions from the African American perspective to heighten the social and cultural awareness of audiences in the St Louis area and beyond. He has produced and directed more than 200 plays at The Black Rep, but his life’s work goes well beyond producing, directing and staging theatrical events. The Black Rep’s award winning education programs that he created provides training and experience for children, teens and interns seeking education and a career in the arts. These programs provide an opportunity for youth to explore their talents and chart a course for the future.

The St. Louis Black Repertory Company continues its season of virtual programming with a mainstage production of HOME, a moving love story by American Playwright and screenwriter Samm-Art Williams. The production will be streamed on Vimeo beginning April 15 and run through April 25. Home was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding New Play. It premiered at The Negro Ensemble Company and transferred to Broadway in 1980.

Roundabout has announced The Refocus Project, an annual program dedicated to elevating rarely produced and formerly marginalized theatrical voices from communities underrepresented or historically overlooked in the American theatre.

L. Scott Caldwell will lead Blumhouse and Amazon’s “Bingo,” the latest thriller as part of the “Welcome to the Blumhouse” series. Caldwell will star as Delores, the “witty, loyal and tough grandmother” at the center of “Bingo’s” story.

Center Theatre Group has added eight new members to its Board of Directors over the course of this season, as the organization continues building strong support from across the community throughout the prolonged closures of its theatres as a result of the pandemic, announced Board President Kiki Ramos Gindler. Growing its Board to 50 members, its newest dedicated supporters are Michelle A. Avan, Wendy Chang, Noah Francis, Ron Gillyard, Max Gousse, Marsha Tauber Sallai, Richard Weitz and Hattie Winston.

BroadwayWorld is saddened to report that playwright, actor, director, and theatrical producer Douglas Turner Ward has passed away. He was 90 years old.

 As part of 'New Federal Theatre Celebrates Black History Month,' Woodie King, Jr.'s New Federal Theatre is offering a live streaming virtual reading of 'Widows' by Mfundi Vundla on February 27 at 7:00 PM. The reading will be available on-demand through March 1. 

The Board of Directors of New York Theatre Barn have announced the exciting addition of four new members to its board: Robin Gorman Newman, Jiles King, Matt Redmond and Kareem Washington. New York Theatre Barn is a non-profit anti-racist theatre company that has served as a home for original culture shifting musicals during incubation since 2007.

Broadway might be dark, but that doesn't mean that theatre isn't happening everywhere! Below, check out where you can get your daily fix of Broadway this weekend, January 23-24, 2020.