Negro Ensemble Company

Negro Ensemble Company
Formation1967; 57 years ago (1967)
TypeTheatre group
Location
Artistic director(s)
Robert Hooks, Gerald S. Krone, Douglas Turner Ward
Notable members
Debbie Allen, John Amos, Angela Bassett, Avery Brooks, Roscoe Lee Browne, Adolph Caesar, Rosalind Cash, Keith David, Bill Duke, Judyann Elder, Giancarlo Esposito, Laurence Fishburne, Danny Glover, Louis Gossett Jr., David Alan Grier, Moses Gunn, Julius Harris, Sherman Hemsley, Kevin Hooks, Samuel L. Jackson, Cleavon Little, Delroy Lindo, S. Epatha Merkerson, Garrett Morris, Denise Nicholas, Ron O'Neal, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Phylicia Rashad, Esther Rolle, Richard Roundtree, Clarice Taylor, Glynn Turman, Denzel Washington, Charles Weldon, Lynn Whitfield, Dick Anthony Williams, Samm-Art Williams, Victor Willis, Hattie Winston
WebsiteOfficial website Edit this at Wikidata

The Negro Ensemble Company (NEC) is a New York City-based theater company and workshop established in 1967 by producer-actor Robert Hooks, playwright Douglas Turner Ward, and theater manager Gerald S. Krone,[1] with funding from the Ford Foundation. The company's focus on original works with themes based in the black experience with an international perspective created a canon of theatrical works and an audience for writers who came later, such as August Wilson, Suzan-Lori Parks, and others.

  1. ^ Genzlinger, Neil, "Gerald Krone, 86, Founder Of Negro Theater Troupe Dies at 86", The New York Times, New York Edition, Section D, p. 6, March 9, 2020.