Negro Ensemble Company Presents 'Webeime'

 The Tony Award-winning Negro Ensemble Company -- celebrating its historic 40th anniversary season as a national showcase and home for black actors, writers and directors -- opens its present season with the NEC premiere of award-winning playwright Layon Gray's Webeime, with previews to begin March 28 prior to its official opening April 5 at The Harlem School of The Arts (645 St. Nicholas Avenue) in Manhattan.
 
Additionally, NEC announces that renowned, award-winning stage, film and television writer/ producer/ director Oz Scott will join the company as new Associate Artistic Director and member of the NEC Board of Directors.
 
According to Charles Weldon, Artistic Director of NEC, Mr. Scott joins the company as NEC starts its fifth decade and begins its present season in its new Off-Broadway home, The Harlem School of the Arts (645 St. Nicholas Ave.) with Layon Gray's Webeime -- the portrayal of one man's coming to terms with the repercussions of the decisions that he has made in life before the inevitable happens.
 
Part Spoken Word and part Choreopoem, with evocative Motown pieces in between, Webeime explores one man's emotional journey: with little time on his side, he searches his soul for inner peace and his mind wanders back down the road that put him in his current predicament. Directed and choreographed by Mr. Gray, the production features Thom Scott, Layon Gray, Lamman Rucker, David Boykins, Jay Jones, Donn Swaby, Jason McGee and Justin Biko
 
Layon Gray received the coveted NAACP Award for Theatre Achievement for his play The Girls of The Summer. Quickly gaining recognition as one of the hardest working artists in the Los Angeles area, he has been rewarded with loyal audiences for his efforts in keeping African American theatre alive and thriving. Having created the Los Angeles African American Repertory Company in 2003, the theatre has been responsible for continuing to provide provocative work exploring life from the Black perspective. Unapologetic about writing through the prism of a particular cultural lens, his plays are embraced by all races and nationalities because of the honest exploration of universal themes together with his eclectic directing and choreographing skills.
 
Oz Scott's resume spans nearly 40 years of groundbreaking work, having directed The Public Theater and Broadway productions of Ntozake Shange's "for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf," the feature films "Bustin' Loose" and "The Cheetah Girls," as well as such memorable television series as "The Jeffersons," "Hill Street Blues," "The Cosby Show," "L.A. Law," "Chicago Hope," "Ally McBeal," "Boston Legal," "Soul Food," and as director and supervising producer of "The District." Recipient of the NAACP Image Award, the Drama Desk, Obie and Genesis Awards, Mr. Scott has more than 75 credits and producer, director and writer to his name. This spring, he will direct Ifa Bayeza's new work, The Ballad of Emmett Till at The Goodman Theater.
 
About Mr. Scott's joining NEC, Charles Weldon says of his longtime friend and colleague, "Oz brings his creative skills and energy to help further the significant contributions of the company to American theater.  Together, we will work to preserve, sustain and build upon those contributions."
 
Since it was founded in 1967, Negro Ensemble Company has produced more than 200 original plays, providing a theatrical home to more than 4000 actors, theatre artists and stage technicians.  The NEC is known worldwide for its commitment to theater excellence and has been nominated for and won dozens of honors and awards, including The River Niger (Tony Award); First Breeze of Summer (Tony-nominated, Outer Critics Circle Award, Obie); Home (Tony-nominated, Outer Critics Circle Award), and A Soldier's Play (Pulitzer, Tony, Obie, Drama Desk Awards).  The NEC counts among its alumni some of the best actors in television and film, including Phylicia Rashad, Denzel Washington, Hattie Winston, Samuel L. Jackson, Angela Bassett, Louis Gossett, Jr. and Barbara Montgomery, among others.
 
According to Dr. George A. Williams, Jr., Chairman of NEC's Board of Directors, the company's 40th anniversary season is being billed as its "Regeneration Season," with the a full-slate of three productions for the first time in several years, a new performance venue, several new members on the Board of Directors, and new funds dedicated not just to stage productions, but new office equipment and support materials, as well as a new Managing Director for the company.
 
New NEC Board member Patrick Bradford, a partner with Wall Street's Davis Polk law firm, states, "In our 40th Anniversary, "Regeneration Season," NEC is proud to be in residence at the Harlem School of the Arts for the first time in our history. The opportunities for community ties have increased exponentially simply because of where we are now.
 
"NEC is a powerful brand because for decades we produced powerful and relevant theater.  This legacy will continue under our new board of directors and, most importantly, our artistic leaders Charles Weldon and Oz Scott who collectively bring over 80 years of experienced artistry to our company.
 
"NEC's expanded artistic vision fits the current state of black America and people of color throughout the world.  Therefore we will be doing new plays, NEC classics, New York premiers, Shakespeare, American classics and American premiers of international plays.  We will also develop black composers for the America Theater.
 
"We will also expand our education programs which bring live theater right into the Public Schools."
 
"NEC seeks to become a fulcrum for the development and presentation of black artistry nationally and internationally.  In doing so, we will continue to work with artists of all backgrounds."
 
Following Webieme will be Nia Orms Please Take A Number directed by Oz Scott, May 14 to June 8.
 
About the Negro Ensemble Company, Inc.: The Negro Ensemble Company, Inc. was founded in New York City in 1967 by actor/producer Robert Hooks, playwright Douglas Turner Ward and theater manager Gerald S. Krone. Their vision was of producing professional theater in which black artists, performers, writers, directors, actors and craftspeople could oversee their own creative destiny. The NEC has successfully provided African-American, African and Caribbean professional artists with an opportunity to learn, work, grow and be nurtured in the performing arts. The Company continues to achieve its mission today by presenting live theater performances by and about black people to a culturally diverse audience that is often underserved by the theatrical community. For more information, go to: http://www.NECINC.org
 
Performances of Webieme run March 28-May 4 at The Harlem School of The Arts (645 St. Nicholas Avenue, between 141 and 145th Streets), Wednesdays-Saturdays at 7:30pm; Saturdays and Sundays at 3:00pm. Tickets are $25-35, call Ticket Central at 212-279-4200 or visit www.ticketcentral.com.