Woodie King, Jr., Founder of New Federal Theatre, Passes Away at 88

Producer, director, and New Federal Theatre founder Woodie King Jr. passed away at age 88 at Weill Cornell Medical Center on January 29, following complications from emergency heart surgery.

Known for his more than five decades spent providing opportunities for minorities and women in the performing arts, King was named a "Legend of Off Broadway" by the Off-Broadway Alliance in 2020 — the same year his New Federal Theatre received the Tony Honors for Excellence in the Theatre.

He was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 2012, and received the Innovative Theatre Award for Sustained Excellence in Theatre. He is has also won an Obie Award for Sustained Achievement, TCG’s Peter Zeisler Award, AEA’s Paul Robeson Award, AEA’s Rosetta LeNoire Award, 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.

He was the subject biographical documentaries such as The King of Stage: the Woodie King Jr. Story" directed by Juney Smith, and TCG's Legacy Leaders of Color video project.

Founded by King in 1970, the New Federal Theatre has a stated mission "to integrate artists of color and women into the mainstream of American theater by training artists for the profession and by presenting plays by writers of color and women to integrated, multicultural audiences — plays which evoke the truth through beautiful and artistic re-creations of ourselves." It has produced more than 450 mainstage plays, many of which transferred to Broadway.

King’s theater and workshops helped bring to country-wide attention playwrights including Ed Bullins, Amiri Baraka, J.e Franklin, Ntozake Shange, David Henry Hwang, Ron Milner, Joseph Lizardi, Damien Leake, Genny Lim, Laurence Holder and Alexis DeVeaux, among others.

Actor veterans include Morgan Freeman, Denzel Washington, Debbie Allen, Samuel L. Jackson, Laurence Fishburne, Chadwick Boseman, Robert Downey, Jr., Ruby Dee, Leslie Uggams, Jackée Harry, Phylicia Rashad, Dick Anthony Williams, Glynn Turman, Taurean Blacque, Garrett Morris, Sam MacMurray, Debbie Morgan, Lynn Whitfield, Reginald Vel-Johnson, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Ella Joyce, Starletta DuPois, S. Epatha Merkerson, Oz Scott, Trazana Beverley, and Anna Maria Horsford, among many others.

Other noted artists who worked at New Federal Theatre include Lloyd Richards, Charles Nelson Reilly, Melba Moore, Vinie Burrows, Art McFarland, Kathleen Chalfant, Earle Hyman, Roger Robinson, Ellen Holly, Giancarlo Esposito, William “Mickey” Stevenson, Max Roach, and Shauneille Perry.

King had three children with his first wife, teacher and casting agent Willie Mae Washington: Woodie Geoffrey King, Michael King, and Michelle King Huger, who collectively gave him five grandchildren.

His organization will continue to be known as Woodie King, Jr.’s New Federal Theatre. Memorial contributions can be made to Woodie King, Jr.’s New Federal Theatre.