By Fern Gillespie
Legendary griot theatre producer-director Woodie King, Jr, The King of Black Theatre, has died at age 88. King’s New Federal Theatre has been at the forefront of producing critically acclaimed plays with social justice themes, for over 50 years. He has mentored actors who are now global stars.

Woodie produced Glynn Turman in his first adult starring role on Broadway in 1974’s “What the Wine Sellers Buy,” produced Ntozake Shange’s “For Colored Girls…” in 1976, and Denzel Washington in his star turn as Malcolm X in the 1981 play “When the Chickens Come Home to Roost.” It was a show that inspired a young Spike Lee, and the rest is cinema history.

Woodie started mentoring Chadwick Boseman when he was a Howard student and produced Boseman’s first starring role in a New York play. Issa Rae worked at New Federal Theatre’s office from 2007 to 2009 as his assistant, where she became inspired her to create “Awkward Black Girl” which became “HBO’s Insecure.” Woodie King’s story is about a legacy that dates back to working with Langston Hughes, producing “Simple” plays, to being a founder of the Black Arts Movement with his friend and colleague Amiri Baraka to creating vital productions that launched the careers of superstars.

“To understand that the 60s and 70s ushered in the Black Arts Movement. Then the Black Arts Movement ushered in the Black Theatre Movement,” King said. “At that time, there was the exception of three or four actors who Hollywood did like, for example Sydney Poitier and Harry Belafonte.

Then the Black Arts Movement started introducing plays that Black people stood in line to see. White people saw that. They said wow we better hire him. That’s what I think happened. The actors we got into television and film had to be brilliant so the more would get in.”

When New Federal Theatre celebrated its 50th Anniversary Gala, the stars were actors with careers spanning span from the 1970s to 2020. Phylicia Rashaad, Glynn Turman and Ted Lange were a few of the stars, The co-hosts were DeWanda Wise, who starred as Brooklyn artist Nola Darling in Spike Lee’s 2019 Netflix series “She’s Gotta Have It,” and her husband, Alano Miller, who starred as Cato in the 2016 WGN award-winning thriller series on slavery “Underground.” “DeWanda was working with New federal theater before “She’s Gotta Have It.”

I directed her in Leslie Lee’s play “Sundown Names and Night-Gone Things” in 2009 and I directed Alonso in a play for the Negro Ensemble Company,” King said. “When you give people their shot and they remember, they come to help. They came out of Black Theatre they give back to Black Theatre.”

Ted Lange first met Woodie King in the early 1970s. An actor, director and screenwriter, Lange kicked off his TV career with 1970s hits “That’s My Mama” and his iconic Isaac in “The Love Boat.” However, he had a long history working in New York and California Black theatre. In 2018, he starred as Elijah Muhammad in the NFT 2018 revival of “When the Chickens Come Home to Roost.” “ Woodie provided the opportunity for Black artists to be Black artists.

He provided the venue and all the things we needed as artists to express our art,” Lange recalled. “When 9-11 happened, Woodie was there with the rest of the theaters producing art for the healing process of New York City. He did maybe 20 play readings. I happened to take part in those readings. At that time, artists responded to the attacks with a healing process.”

Woodie King, Jr.’s New Federal Theatre has produced over 450 mainstage plays, an astonishing and influential record of achievement, sending multiple plays to Broadway and launching numerous minority and women playwrights and actors into prominent careers. Its alumni are an honor roll of artists of color from the 1970s through today. Several early successes brought NFT to national prominence: “Black Girl” by J.e. Franklin, won a Drama Desk Award, “The Taking of Miss Janie” by Ed Bullins moved from NFT to Lincoln Center and won the Drama Critics Circle Award; “For Colored Girls Who Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf” by Ntozake Shange performed on Broadway for ten months (co-produced with the late Joseph Papp) and was nominated for the Tony Award before embarking on a three-year national tour. Woodie King’s impact has earned him accolades: Tony Honor for Excellence in Theatre, Obie Award for Sustained Achievement, induction into American Theatre Hall of Fame, NAACP Image Award and many Audelco Awards.

The theater and its workshop have helped bring to national attention such playwrights as Ed Bullins, Amiri Baraka, J.e Franklin, Ntozake Shange, David Henry Hwang, Ron Milner, Joseph Lazardi, Damien Leake, Genny Lim, Laurence Holder, Alexis DeVeaux, and others. Actor veterans include Morgan Freeman, Denzel Washington, Debbie Allen, Samuel L. Jackson, Laurence Fishburne, Chadwick Boseman, Robert Downey, Jr., Ruby Dee, Leslie Uggams, Jackée Harry, Phylicia Rashad, Dick Anthony Williams, Glynn Turman, Taurean Blacque, Garrett Morris, Debbie Morgan, Lynn Whitfield, Reginald Vel-Johnson, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Ella Joyce, Starletta DuPois, Issa Rae, S. Epatha Merkerson, Oz Scott, Trazana Beverley, Pauletta Washington, Morgan Freeman, Anna Maria Horsford, Lloyd Richards, Charles Nelson Reilly, Melba Moore, Vinie Burrows, Art McFarland, Kathleen Chalfant, Earle Hyman, Ellen Holly, Giancarlo Esposito, Max Roach, Shauneille Perry and many more.

“New Federal Theatre’s mission is still to provide opportunities for people of color and works by African-Americans and others to be presented and then be produced. New Federal Theater is essential. There aren’t that many avenues for them to develop their work as playwrights and actors,” said Beth Turner, who has covered Black theater in her magazine Black Masks since 1984. “Woodie King has the historical memory of Black theater for the 20th century and on to today. He’s able to call upon those archives in this day and age when it’s hard to be producing new work. This archived work really speaks to Black Americans contribution in theater.”

In addition to New Federal Theatre, Woodie King’s influence in Black theatre spans serving as Chairman of Coalition of Theatres of Color, founder and producer of Black History Month Play Festival, and founder and producer of National Black Touring Circuit. Friends continue to support the work of New Federal Theatre.

Both Denzel Washington and Glynn Turman are New Federal Theatre board members and Turman is a producer of the award-winning documentary “King of Stage: The Woodie King Jr., Story.” Woodie was also an admirer of Our Time Press. Bernice Green, co-founder of the paper, was an active member of the theatre’s board of directors and hosted major events. Staff writer, Fern Gillespie, was a long-time public relations consultant on special theatre projects for Woodie King.

Our Time Press sends condolences to the King family and to Woodie’s widow, actress/director/producer Elizabeth Van Dyke, Artistic Director of New Federal Theatre, who is carrying on his legacy in Black theatre.

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