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The VIV's
AUDELCO, the Audience Development Committee, Inc., was established in 1973 by Vivian Robinson to honor excellence in African American theatre in New York City. AUDELCO presents the Vivian Robinson/AUDELCO Recognition Awards (also known as Viv awards) annually. The awards were created to promote "recognition, understanding, and awareness of the arts in the African-American community." The AUDELCO awards recognize the following Off-Broadway and Off-Off Broadway: *Productions by African-American companies *Productions written and/or directed by African-Americans *African-American actors in productions Description AUDELCO has an office in Harlem, and the current president is Jacqueline Jeffries. The board of directors includes: Tony Peterson (2nd Vice-President), Ralph Carter (3rd Vice-President), Linda Armstrong (secretary), and Cherine Anderson, A. Curtis Farrow, Bambi Jones, Donna M. Mills, Mary Seymour, Dale Ricardo Shields, Terrence Spivey, and Mary B. Davis as the Chair Eme ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sanaa Lathan
Sanaa McCoy Lathan (; born September 19, 1971) is an American actress. She is the daughter of actress Eleanor McCoy and film director Stan Lathan. Her career began after she appeared in the shows ''In the House'', '' Family Matters'', ''NYPD Blue'', and ''Moesha''. Lathan later garnered further prominence after starring in the 1998 superhero film ''Blade'', which followed with film roles in '' The Best Man'' (1999), '' Love & Basketball'' (2000), '' Disappearing Acts'' (2000), and ''Brown Sugar'' (2002). In 2004, Lathan's performance in the Broadway revival of ''A Raisin in the Sun'', earned her a nomination at the Tony Awards for Best Featured Actress in a Play. Following this, she played the role of Alexa "Lex" Woods in the film '' Alien vs. Predator''. In 2008, she landed a leading role in film '' The Family That Preys'' by Tyler Perry. Lathan returned to theatre work in 2010, starring in the all-black performance of ''Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'' at the Novello Theatre in Lond ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph Papp
Joseph Papp (born Joseph Papirofsky; June 22, 1921 – October 31, 1991) was an American theatrical producer and director. Papp is a pioneering figure in American theater, known for creating Shakespeare in the Park, which aimed to make classical theater accessible to all people by producing free-of-charge performances. He was a known advocate for non-traditional and diverse casting practices. He established The Public Theater in what had been the Astor Library Building in Lower Manhattan. There Papp created a year-round producing home to focus on new plays and musicals. Eventually, one of the six performance spaces inside the Public Theater was renamed Joe's Pub in honor of Joseph Papp. It continues to host live performances across a wide range of art forms. Among numerous examples of these were the works of David Rabe, Ntozake Shange's ''For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf'', Charles Gordone's '' No Place to Be Somebody'' (the first off ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robbie McCauley
Robbie Doris McCauley (July 14, 1942 – May 20, 2021) was an American playwright, director, performer, and professor. McCauley is best known for her plays ''Sugar'' and ''Sally's Rape,'' among other works that addressed racism in the United States and challenged audiences to participate in dialogue with her work. She also performed in Ntozake Shange's 1976 Broadway play ''For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf''. McCauley was professor emerita at Emerson College, teaching there from 2001 until she retired in 2013. Early life Robbie McCauley was born in Norfolk, Virginia, on July 14, 1942. Her parents were Robert, who spent his career in the military, and Alice (Borders) McCauley, who worked in the federal government. Robbie spent most of her younger years splitting time between Washington, D.C. and Columbus, Georgia. She earned her B.A. in 1963 from Howard University and later an M.A. from New York University. Career In New York, McCauley b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bill Gunn (writer)
William Harrison Gunn (July 15, 1934 – April 5, 1989) was an American playwright, novelist, actor and film director. His 1973 cult classic horror film '' Ganja & Hess'' was chosen as one of ten best American films of the decade at the Cannes Film Festival, 1973.Gunn, Bill (May 13, 1973), "To be a Black Artist'." ''The New York Times'', p. 121. In ''The New Yorker'', film critic Richard Brody described him as being "a visionary filmmaker left on the sidelines of the most ostensibly liberated period of American filmmaking."Brody, Richard (August 16, 2016)"The Front Row: Ganja & Hess" ''New Yorker''. Condé Nast. Filmmaker Spike Lee had said that Gunn is "one of the most under-appreciated filmmakers of his time." Gunn's drama ''Johnnas'' won an Emmy Award in 1972. Career A native of Philadelphia, Gunn wrote more than 29 plays during his lifetime. He also authored two novels and wrote several produced screenplays. In 1950, Gunn studied acting with Mira Rostova in New York's East Vil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Woodie King, Jr
Woodie may refer to: *Woodie, a wooden roller coaster with running rails made of flattened steel strips mounted on a laminated wooden track *Ryan Mitchell Wood, known as "Woodie", rapper *Woodie, the first Fender amplifier *Woodie, slang for a penile erection *Woodie (car body style), a type of car with a rear portion of the bodywork made of wood *Woodie Awards, a semi-annual awards show on mtvU *Woodie's DIY, an Irish DIY store chain operated by the Grafton Group *The Woodies, nickname for longtime Australian tennis doubles partners Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde *Woody (name), a list which includes people with the given name Woodie See also *Wood (other) *Woodies (other) *Woody (other) Woody may refer to: Biology * Pertaining to wood, a plant tissue and material * Woody plant, a plant with a rigid stem containing wood * Pertaining to woodland, land covered with trees People and fictional characters * Woody (name), a list of pe ... * Wu Di (di ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dick Anthony Williams
Richard Anthony Williams (August 9, 1934 – February 16, 2012) was an American actor. He was best known for his starring performances on Broadway in ''The Poison Tree'', ''What the Wine-Sellers Buy'' and ''Black Picture Show''. Williams also had notable roles in 1970s blaxploitation films such as ''The Mack'' and '' Slaughter's Big Rip-Off''. Early life Born in Chicago, Illinois, Williams was raised in the Bronzeville neighborhood. During his early childhood, Williams spent several years in a local hospital due to having polio. For high school, Williams attended Hyde Park Academy High School. Williams later attended Herzl Junior College (now known as City Colleges of Chicago). Career Williams began his career during his late teens as a member of Williams Brothers Quartet, a singing group founded in Chicago. He later moved to Los Angeles and began his acting career. Some of Williams roles included Pretty Tony in ''The Mack'' (1973), the limo driver in ''Dog Day Afternoon'' (1975 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Wesley
Richard Wesley (born July 11, 1945) is an American playwright and screenwriter. He is an associate professor at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in the Rita and Burton Goldberg Department of Dramatic Writing. Early life Wesley was born in Newark, New Jersey, to George and Gertrude Wesley, and grew up in the Ironbound section.Galant, Debra"Look Homeward" ''The New York Times'', September 17, 2000. Accessed September 22, 2008. After finishing high school, he studied playwriting and dramatic literature at Howard University and graduated with a Master of Fine Arts degree in 1967. Freedman, Samuel G.br>"THEATER; One Struggle Over, Attention Turns to Guilt" ''The New York Times'', October 29, 1989. Accessed September 22, 2008. Career He first became known for the 1971 New York Shakespeare Festival of his play ''Black Terror,'' which portrayed the story of a black revolution. Clive Barnes, writing for ''The New York Times,'' described the play as a "winner" that "make ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shauneille Perry
Shauneille Gantt Perry Ryder (July 26, 1929 – June 9, 2022) was an American stage director and playwright. She was one of the first African-American women to direct off-Broadway. Biography Shauneille Perry was born on July 26, 1929, in Chicago, Illinois, to a prominent African-American family. She is the only child of Graham T. Perry (1894–1960), one of the first African-American assistant attorneys-general for the State of Illinois and his wife, the former (Laura) Pearl Gantt (1903–1957), one of the first African-American court reporters in Chicago, who studied business at Morris Brown College. She is the niece by marriage of real-estate broker and political activist Carl Augustus Hansberry, who married her father's sister, Nannie Louise Perry, and the first cousin of playwright Lorraine Hansberry, their daughter. She is also the niece by marriage of Carl Hansberry's brother, Africanist scholar William Leo Hansberry. She later said, "Lorraine and I sat at the table a l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Helaine Head
Helaine Head (born January 17, 1947, in Los Angeles, California) is an American film, television, and theatre director. Career In television, some of her directing credits are ''St. Elsewhere'', ''Cagney & Lacey'', ''Frank's Place'', ''L.A. Law'', '' Wiseguy'', ''Tour of Duty'', '' Brewster Place'', ''seaQuest 2032'', ''Law & Order'' and ''Sliders''. She has also directed a number of television films. During the 1970s and early 1980s, Head worked as a theatre director and stage manager in a number of stage productions on Broadway. In 1985, Head directed in ''The Color Purple'' and '' Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins''. In 1990, Head directed ''The Danger Team'', a 24-minute claymation special intended to be the pilot episode of a potentially longer running TV show. The pilot aired on ABC on July 3, 1991, and featured claymation mixed with live actors. The pilot episode was poorly received and was not picked up for a full series. In the 2000s, Head became an associate professo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shirley Prendergast
Merris Shirley Prendergast (June 15, 1929 – February 26, 2019) was a theater lighting designer notable for being the first African-American woman admitted to the United Scenic Artists’ lighting division in 1969. She was also the first African-American woman lighting designer on Broadway in 1973. Prendergast designed lighting for Broadway shows such as ''Waltz of the Stork'', '' Amen Corner'', and the Paul Robeson one-man show. She designed lighting for fifty years, well into her mid-80s. One of her last productions was ''Zora Neale Hurston: a Theatrical Biography'' in 2016. Early life Prendergast was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to Dorita and Wilford Prendergast. She grew up in Boston and New York. She studied microbiology at Brooklyn College, where she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1954. She worked as a bacteriologist with the New York City Health Department and focused on her art when not at work. Prendergast took a lighting design class at the YWCA (Young Women ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Denzel Washington
Denzel Hayes Washington Jr. (born December 28, 1954) is an American actor, producer, and director. Known for his dramatic roles Denzel Washington on screen and stage, on stage and screen, Washington has received List of awards and nominations received by Denzel Washington, numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and a Tony Award. In 2020, ''The New York Times'' named him the greatest actor of the 21st century. He has been honored with the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award, Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2016, AFI Life Achievement Award in 2019, the Honorary Palme d'Or in 2025, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2025. After training at the American Conservatory Theater, Washington began his career in theater, acting in performances off-Broadway. He first came to prominence in the NBC medical drama series ''St. Elsewhere'' (1982–1988), and in the war film ''A Soldier's Story'' (1984). Washington won Academy Awards for Academy Award for Be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
