APPENDIX
DOUGLAS TURNER WARD – trailblazing American playwright, actor, director, and producer who revolutionized American theater as the co-founder and artistic director of the Negro Ensemble Company (NEC). Born Roosevelt Ward Jr. on a plantation in Louisiana, he adopted his stage name in honor of abolitionist Frederick Douglass and slave rebellion leader Nat Turner.
GERALD KRONE – American theatrical producer and manager, best known as one of the three founders of the Negro Ensemble Company (NEC), a landmark New York City institution dedicated to Black theater.
BARBRA ANN TEER – pioneering African American actress, director, and visionary who fundamentally reshaped the landscape of Black theater. Disillusioned by the stereotypical roles offered to Black performers, she famously declared, “We’re not actors, we’re liberators,” and dedicated her life to creating art that promoted cultural transformation and social change.
Louis Johnson (1930–2020) was a pioneering American dancer and choreographer whose career seamlessly bridged the worlds of ballet, modern dance, Broadway, and film. Born in North Carolina and raised in Washington, D.C., he began his training as an acrobat before earning a scholarship to the Jones-Haywood School of Ballet. In 1950, he moved to New York to attend the School of American Ballet (SAB), where he was one of the very few Black students at the time.
Lonne Elder III (1927–1996) was a pioneering African American playwright and screenwriter, best known for his powerful depictions of Black family life and his historical achievement as an Academy Award nominee.
LESILE UGGAMS – pioneering American actress and singer whose career spans over seven decades across stage, screen, and television. Born May 25, 1943, in Harlem, she began performing as a child in the early 1950s, famously appearing at the Apollo Theater at age nine.
KEVIN HOOKS – American actor, director, and producer who transitioned from a successful career as a child and teen actor to becoming a prolific director in Hollywood. He is widely recognized for his breakout acting role as Morris Thorpe in the TV series The White Shadow and for directing the action film Passenger 57.
Joseph Papp (1921–1991) was a transformative American theatrical producer and director who championed the idea that “great art is for everyone”. He is best known for founding the New York Shakespeare Festival and The Public Theater, institutions that revolutionized American theater by making it accessible and diverse.
The NEGRO ENSEMBLE COMPANY
The Negro Ensemble Company, Inc
