The Negro Ensemble Company News

See photos from inside the rehearsal room as Home by Samm-Art Williams prepares to open on Broadway, in a production directed by Kenny Leon.

See photos of the company of Home on Broadway featuring Kenny Leon and more meeting the press!

From August 10 to 26, the Negro Ensemble Company, Inc. (NEC), in conjunction with their residency at Penn Live Arts, will perform the world premiere of 'Mecca Is Burning' at Harlem School of the Arts.

It's a new season on Broadway! While plenty of 2023/24 season announcements have yet to be made, many productions have already revealed full details of their upcoming engagements. Check out a full list of what's to come on Broadway in Fall 2023-Spring 2024!

From October 19 to November 6 at Cherry Lane Theatre, 38 Commerce Street, The Negro Ensemble Company, Inc. will present 'Our Voices, Our Time,' a program of three one-acts that have been co-commissioned by Penn Live Arts at the University of Pennsylvania.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, The Negro Ensemble Company, Inc. (NEC) has been developing 'Lambs to Slaughter' by Khalil Kain, a new play with poetry and music, under the direction of Reginald L. Douglas. Khalil Kain is an urban icon who is renowned for his performances in the 1992 crime thriller 'Juice,' the UPN/CW sitcom 'Girlfriends' (2001-2008) and the title role in the Showtime biopic 'The Tiger Woods Story.'

During the Covid-19 pandemic, The Negro Ensemble Company, Inc. (NEC) has been developing 'Lambs to Slaughter' by Khalil Kain, a new play with poetry and music, under the direction of Reginald L. Douglas.

One of the ways The Negro Ensemble Company, Inc. (NEC) fulfills its mission to discover and nurture new, innovative works by skilled and creative artists is its NEC Cutting Edge Playhouse: Emerging Playwrights Competition, which will be mounted for the second time May 5 to 29, 2022.  

BroadwayWorld is saddened to report that playwright and theatre professor, Paul Carter Harrison, has died at 85.While teaching at California State University, Sacramento (1970–1972), Harrison conceived and directed Melvin Van Peebles’ “Ain’t Supposed To Die a Natural Death” prior to its Broadway production, and wrote his play The Great MacDaddy which was produced by the Negro Ensemble Company in 1973, and won an Obie Award.

As part of BroadwayWorld's expansive coverage of the 74th Annual Tony Awards, we're bringing you the full text of all of the acceptance speeches; from the emotional to the humorous, and everything in between. Keep up with all of the winners' speeches with our list below.

Roundabout Theatre Company is presenting The Refocus Project, a multi-year project to elevate and restore marginalized plays to the American canon. On Friday, April 30 the project will launch with Samm-Art Williams’ 90-minute drama HOME directed by Roundabout’s Senior Resident Director Kenny Leon.

The St. Louis Black Repertory Company continues its season of virtual programming with a mainstage production of HOME, a moving love story by American Playwright and screenwriter Samm-Art Williams. The production will be streamed on Vimeo beginning April 15 and run through April 25. Home was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding New Play. It premiered at The Negro Ensemble Company and transferred to Broadway in 1980.

On Friday, October 9 at 8:00 PM, The Negro Ensemble Company, Inc. (NEC) will live stream the second installment of its NEC Zoom Short Play Series, 'This World Was Made for All Men--And Women,' a ten-minute play competition to be live streamed from Contra Studios, 122 W. 26th Street, Manhattan. 

The New York Times has reported that Steve Carter, the renowned playwright who emerged from the Black Arts movement and the Negro Ensemble Company, writing about the Black and Caribbean-American experiences, has passed away at age 90. 

Karen Brown, Artistic Director of The Negro Ensemble Company, Inc. has penned an article exclusively for BroadwayWorld, discussing the current movement, 'Dear White American Theater,' and more. 

Today's subject Marva Hicks is currently living her theatre life onstage at Signature Theatre in the World Premiere Musical Gun & Powder. The production runs through February 23rd in Signature's MAX Theatre space. You'll be able to see my review of the show on Broadway World soon. Trust me it will be worth the wait.

The United States Artists (USA) announced today that dancer/ choreographer Dianne McIntyre is one of fifty recipients of their 2020 USA Fellow award. Each of the fifty recipients will receive a $50,000 cash award of unrestricted funds.

In keeping with the mission and vision of The Negro Ensemble Company, Inc, the company will present 'a photograph / lovers in motion,' written by Ntozake Shange and adapted and directed by Ifa Bayeza, from February 5 to 29 at Theatre 80 St. Marks, 80 St. Marks Place. The play was first produced at The Public Theater as 'a photograph / a study in cruelty' in 1977 then revised and produced at the Houston Ensemble Theater in 1982 under its current title, 'a photograph / lovers in motion.' It was presented as a feature in NEC's annual reading series in 2015, Year of the Woman.

Yesterday evening in New York City, Broadway's SLAVE PLAY and its creator, playwright Jeremy O. Harris hosted BLACK OUT during the show's previews. BLACK OUT dedicated the 804 seats of 45th Street's Golden Theatre to an audience of black identified artists, writers, activists, creatives, and students in celebration of the critically-acclaimed, Robert O'Hara directed play and in recognition of Broadway's rich, diverse, and fraught history with black work. The event was followed by a Talk Forward moderated by VULTURE Staff Writer Hunter Harris and Author Casey Gerald, during which playwright Jeremy O. Harris discussed the work, buzz, and questions around this play - as well as Broadway's history of work created by black artists.

The tragicomedy Imminently Yours buoys some historically heavy subject matter with a contemporary lift, giving voice to the experience of multiple generations of African-Americans who thrive in a contradictory space where secrecy and support are both critical to survival.