Black Theater Companies Come Together to Celebrate the Legacy of Woodie King Jr, 2/27

In celebration of the life and work of Woodie King Jr., founder and Artistic Director of The New Federal Theatre, four emerging theatre companies have organized a special conversation with Mr. King to recognize his legacy and impact on the black theatre community. 

Participating companies include The New Black Fest, The Fire This Time Festival, The Movement Theatre Company and With a Cherry on Top Productions. The Africana Studies Department of Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University will host the event titled “Honoring Excellence in Black Theatre:  A Night with Woodie King Jr.” at NYU in New York City on Monday, February 27, 2012 from 7:00pm – 8:30pm.

The evening will begin with a wine and cheese reception followed by a  conversation with Mr. King about his personal and professional journey. Kamilah Forbes, Artistic Director of the Hip Hop Theater Festival and Assistant Director of The Mountaintop and Stick Fly on Broadway, will moderate the conversation.  Award-winning actress Bianca LaVerne Jones will act as the mistress of ceremonies. The evening will end with a champagne toast and photos. 

#NEWPLAY TV will live-stream the event at www.livestream.com/newplay.

Admission is $10, however seating is limited and reservations required.  Two tickets per person. To purchase tickets, go to: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/225865

“Honoring Excellence in Black Theatre:  A Night with Woodie King Jr.” will begin promptly at 7:00pm at New York University’s Africana Department of Social and Cultural Analysis.  20 Cooper Square, 4^th Floor.  

Woodie King JR. is a founder and producing director of New Federal Theatre in New York City. New Federal Theatre has presented over 200 productions in its 41 year history. His credits as a director are extensive and include work in film as well as theater. He has directed at Cleveland Playhouse, Stage West Virginia Museum Theatre, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse, Northlight Theater, New Federal Theatre, The Ensemble Studio, Arena Stage, GeVa Theater, American Place Theater, Jomandi Theatre, Center Stage of Baltimore, Indiana Repertory Company, Studio Arena in Buffalo, New York Shakespeare Festival, Billie Holiday Theater, St. Louis Black Repertory Theatre and Crossroads Theater Company.  In 1988 he directed Checkmates on Broadway. In 1987 King directed Charles Dutton in Splendid Murmur at American Place Theater; in 1990 God's Trombones at the Ford's Theatre and Joe Turner's Come and Gone at Detroit Rep in 1991/92; he also directed A Raisin in the Sun and The Member of the Wedding, both at GeVa. He directed Good Black Don't Crack and Love And Marriage and New York City at Billie Holiday Theatre in Brooklyn and produced and directed Robert Johnson: Trick The Devil for which he won AUDELCO Awards as Best Director and Best Play of the Year in 1993 and A Raisin in the Sun, starring Esther Rolle and Kenny Leon, at The ALLIANCE THEATRE in Atlanta. 

Mr. King is Graduate of Will-O-Way School of Theatre in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan; Lehman College in New York; and received his MFA in directing at Brooklyn College. He is currently a visiting professor at Sarah Lawrence College where last season he directed Lynn Nottage's Crumbs from the Table of Joy. Last season he also directed Derek Walcott's The Odyssey at SUNY Purchase. Mr. King is the recipient of the Obie Award for Sustained Achievement, a TCG Peter Zeisler Award, AEA's Paul Robeson Award, AEA's Rosetta LeNoire Award; and an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Wayne State University, a Doctorate of Fine Arts from the College of Wooster; and Honorary Doctorates from Lehman College and John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Kamilah Forbes is a director and the artistic director of the Hip Hop Theater Festival.  Her directing credits include: Broadway’s The Mountaintop (Assistant Director), Broadway’s Stick Fly (Assistant Director), Welcome to Nellie’s by Dominique Morrisseau (Classical Theater of Harlem, Reading), Nannyland by Radha Blank (Public Theater, Reading) Saturday Night/Sunday Morning by Katori Hall (Lincoln Center Theater Lab Reading series), The Mountaintop by Katori Hall (Lark Theater, barebones production), Journey to the door of no return by Psalmayene 24 (Arena Stage, workshop), Children of Children Keep Coming (Columbia University), Beauty, the Beast (Dance Mission, San Francisco), And Her Hair went with her by Zina Camblin (NJ Reperatory Theater)  Most recently she directed National Poetry Slam Champion Marc Bamuthi Joseph’s multi-disciplinary dance theater piece SCOURGE.  Other credits include: assistant director for Tony Award winning DEF POETRY JAM on BROADWAY, Masquerade by solo spoken word artist Roger Bonair–Agard, Rhyme Deferred which she conceived and co-wrote. It was presented at: (The Kennedy Center, Arena Stage, PS122, New York Theater Workshop, Undermain Theater).  She recently received the 2011 Josephine Abady award from the League of Professional Women in theater for excellence in the theater and is a member of the Leadership Board with the Women’s Project.  She is also the Co-Executive Producer of the current HBO series Brave New Voices, Producer for the Peabody award winning HBO series: Russell Simmons’ Def Poetry Jam.  She received a BFA from Howard University in theater and studied at the British American Drama Academy in Oxford, England.

The New Black Fest is a theater collective committed to celebrating insurgent voices within the diverse African Diaspora through theater, music and scholarship. www.thenewblackfest.org

The Fire This Time Festival explores the possibilities in black theater and offers early-career playwrights of African and African American descent the opportunity to write and produce material that reflects diverse perspectives as 21st Century Theater artists. www.firethistimefestival.com/ 

The Movement Theatre Company [TMTC] is dedicated to developing new works by artists of color and producing work that highlights both the collective and diverse human experience.  www.themovementtheatrecompany.org 

With a Cherry on Top Productions  helps to present engaging works that give the artistic voices we carry inside of us the ability to come to the forefront through the stage, and film. The voices that are by us, for us, and with us. Come join us as we reach the top!  www.about.me/cherryontop

Africana Studies at New York University, part of the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis, is an interdisciplinary undertaking devoted to scholarship on the histories, political and cultural movements, institutions, economies and identities of Africans and the African Diaspora across the globe. 

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