Signature Presents Reading Series of Works by Negro Ensemble Company

Signature Theatre Company continues its celebration of the Negro Ensemble Company (NEC) with special presentations of three more plays from the historic NEC repertoire. Curated by NEC Founder Douglas Turner Ward, Signature Associate Artist Ruben Santiago-Hudson and the Signature Theatre Company staff, these plays will be read on stage at the Peter Norton Space (555 West 42nd Street) on select evenings throughout the season. These classic works give greater insight into the history of this vital and groundbreaking company.

The readings are by invitation only. For more information, please visit www.signaturetheatre.org.

The reading series includes:

THE RIVER NIGER
by Joseph A. Walker
Directed by Seret Scott
December 15, 2008

CAST (subject to change):

Francois Battiste, Nicole Behaire, Amari Cheatom, Erin Cherry, Chuck Cooper, Brandon Dirden, Harriett D. Foy, Brian Tyree Henry, Nikiya Mathis, Chivas Michael, Lizan Mitchell and Chuck Patterson

Joseph A. Walker's landmark Tony Award-winning drama is a story of family love and sacrifice set amidst the revolutionary 1970s. John Williams is a poet whose dreams have been deferred by work and obligation. His hope lies in his son Jeff, who is trying to make a life for himself separate from his family and society's expectations, even as friends from Jeff's past attempt to force him back into a life of danger and violence.

DAY OF ABSENCE
Written and directed by Douglas Turner Ward
February 1-2, 2009

A special staged reading of NEC Founder Douglas Turner Ward's seminal 1965 play that inspired the founding of the NEC. Ward's play is an Obie Award-winning satire in which a town is thrown into turmoil after the sudden disappearance of its black residents.

A SEASON TO UNRAVEL
by Alexis De Veaux
Directed by Douglas Turner Ward
April 20, 2009

Alexis De Veaux's surreal memory play is a phantasmagorical journey into the zoo-like mind of Erzula, a gifted psychologist, as she confronts her inner demons and contemplates her complicated relationship with her late father.

Lead sponsorship for Signature Theatre provided by Time Warner Inc.

Support for the Negro Ensemble Company Season is provided by American Express

Major support for the Negro Ensemble Company Season is provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

NEGRO ENSEMBLE COMPANY (2008-2009 Artist-in-Residence) In 1966, Douglas Turner Ward, Robert Hooks, and Gerald Krone sat down in a Greenwich Village restaurant to try and bring a dream to life: a permanent home in which black theatre artists could oversee, control and promote their own artistic destinies. The success of their Off Broadway productions of Douglas Turner Ward's plays Day of Absence and Happy Ending attracted the attention of the Ford Foundation, who gave the company a $1 million grant to start it off on its journey through history.

The NEC's record of success is amply documented with a Pulitzer Prize,Tony Awards, Drama Desk Awards, more than a dozen Obie Awards, and critical recognition world wide. Over the years the company has produced more than two hundred new plays, working with writers such as Stephen Carter, Lonnie Elder, Charles Fuller, Leslie Lee, Joseph Walker and Samm-Art Williams. They have established an extensive theatre training program, and provided a home for many artists, including Angela Bassett, Roscoe Lee Brown, Adolph Caesar, Antonio Fargas, Laurence Fishburne, Samuel L. Jackson, Phylicia Rashad, Esther Rolle, and Denzel Washington.

Today the NEC continues to achieve its mission by presenting theatre by and about black people to a culturally diverse, but under served audience and offers a unique place for black voices to sing in both harmony and discord and to conflict and debate. The NEC's repertoire includes new plays by black writers, original musicals, revivals of NEC classics, and New York premieres.

NOW PLAYING AT SIGNATURE THEATRE COMPANY

Home
by Samm-Art Williams
Directed by Ron OJ Parson
Extended through January 11, 2009

Leaving behind his family's farm in North Carolina, Cephus Miles seeks refuge and prosperity in the North. Three actors portray more than twenty-five characters over the course of Cephus' epic journey from adolescence to adulthood, spanning the 1950's through the Vietnam War and Civil Rights eras. Samm-Art Williams' critically acclaimed work is a wonderfully theatrical tale of one man's struggle to stay true to himself amidst a rapidly changing and turbulent America.

COMING SOON TO SIGNATURE THEATRE COMPANY

Zooman and the Sign
by Charles Fuller
Directed by Stephen McKinley Henderson
March 3-April 26, 2009

A random act of violence leaves Reuben Tate and his family questioning their friends and neighbors, but their once caring community has been scared into helpless silence. As young Zooman terrorizes the neighborhood from the shadows, Reuben makes a dangerous appeal which may tear their world apart. This powerful drama by Charles Fuller, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Soldier's Play, depicts the devastating aftermath of violence on a family and an entire community.

www.signaturetheatre.org