Formation | 1967 |
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Type | Theatre group |
Location |
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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 |
Website | Official website |
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.