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The Ensemble Theatre
The Ensemble Theatre, located in the heart of midtown at 3535 Main Street in Houston, Texas, is the largest African-American professional theatre company in the United States that produces plays in-house and owns its own facility. History The Ensemble Theatre is a non-profit organization founded by George Hawkins in 1976 as a touring company that rehearsed in a church basement. In 2003, the company was awarded $250,000 from the Houston Endowment Inc., with which it retired its original capital campaign debt and made some improvements to the facility. Since 1991, Houston Endowment Inc. has granted a total of $1,220,500 to the Ensemble, including an annual operating grant. In August 2006, the Ensemble Theatre celebrated its 30-year anniversary, as it launched its 2006/2007 production season. This celebration included the presentation of an award to American actor and director Danny Glover, as the 2006 "Lifetime Achievement" honoree. The theatre building The Ensemble building, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Ensemble Theatre Houston 04
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the most frequently used word in the English language; studies and analyses of texts have found it to account for seven percent of all printed English-language words. It is derived from gendered articles in Old English which combined in Middle English and now has a single form used with pronouns of any gender. The word can be used with both singular and plural nouns, and with a noun that starts with any letter. This is different from many other languages, which have different forms of the definite article for different genders or numbers. Pronunciation In most dialects, "the" is pronounced as (with the voiced dental fricative followed by a schwa) when followed by a consonant sound, and as (homophone of pronoun ''thee'') when followed by a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pearl Cleage
Pearl Cleage (December 7, 1948) (pronounced: “cleg”) is an African-American playwright, essayist, novelist, poet and political activist.Spratling, Cassandra. "Pearl Cleage's Storied Life Cover Story." Detroit Free Press, Feb 21, 2010. ProQuest.Sammons, Benjamin. "Flyin' 'Anyplace Else': (Dis)Engaging Traumatic Memory in Three Plays by Pearl Cleage." Drama Criticism, edited by Thomas J. Schoenberg and Lawrence J. Trudeau, vol. 32, Gale, 2009. Gale Literature Resource Center. Originally published in Reading Contemporary African American Drama: Fragments of History, Fragments of Self, edited by Trudier Harris and Jennifer Larson, Peter Lang, 2007, pp. 99-119. She is currently the Playwright in Residence at the Alliance Theatre and at the Just Us Theater Company. Cleage is a political activist. She tackles issues at the crux of racism and sexism, and is known for her feminist views, particularly regarding her identity as an African-American woman.Giles, Freda Scott. “The Motio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theatre Companies In Houston
Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music, and dance. Elements of art, such as painted scenery and stagecraft such as lighting are used to enhance the physicality, presence and immediacy of the experience. The specific place of the performance is also named by the word "theatre" as derived from the Ancient Greek θέατρον (théatron, "a place for viewing"), itself from θεάομαι (theáomai, "to see", "to watch", "to observe"). Modern Western theatre comes, in large measure, from the theatre of ancient Greece, from which it borrows technical terminology, classification into genres, and many of its themes, stock characters, and plot elements. Theatre artist Patric ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theatres In Houston
Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music, and dance. Elements of art, such as painted scenery and stagecraft such as lighting are used to enhance the physicality, presence and immediacy of the experience. The specific place of the performance is also named by the word "theatre" as derived from the Ancient Greek θέατρον (théatron, "a place for viewing"), itself from θεάομαι (theáomai, "to see", "to watch", "to observe"). Modern Western theatre comes, in large measure, from the theatre of ancient Greece, from which it borrows technical terminology, classification into genres, and many of its themes, stock characters, and plot elements. Theatre artist Patrice Pavi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
History Of African Americans In Houston
The African American population in Houston, Texas, has been a significant part of the city's community since its establishment.Haley, John H. (University of North Carolina at Wilmington). " Black Dixie: Afro-Texan History and Culture in Houston" (Book Review). ''The Georgia Historical Quarterly'', July 1, 1993, Vol. 77(2), pp. 412–413Available fromJSTOR. CITED: p. 412. "Blacks were already present in Houston at the time of its founding in 1836, .. The Greater Houston area has the largest population of African Americans in Texas and west of the Mississippi River. Black Enterprise has referred to Houston as a black mecca. History When Houston was founded in 1836, an African-American community had already begun to be established. In 1860, 49% of the city's African American population was enslaved;Treviño, Robert R. '' The Church in the Barrio: Mexican American Ethno-Catholicism in Houston''. UNC Press Books, February 27, 200629. Retrieved from Google Books on November 22, 2 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Black Theatre
The National Black Theatre is a non-profit cultural and educational corporation, and community-based theatre company located on 5th Avenue in Harlem, New York. History The National Black Theatre (NBT) is a non-profit cultural and educational corporation, and community-based theatre company born out of the civil rights movement to tell the stories of black theatre that did not often have a home in mainstream theatre. Based in the Harlem neighborhood of the New York City borough of Manhattan, NBT was founded in 1968 by actress, director, producer, Dr. Barbara Ann Teer. Dr. Teer founded the NBT with a goal of creating a "massive cultural and artistic movement to create people culturally literate." Teer viewed the African-American community as one that was in desperate need of an African cultural education. The company committed itself to representing and establishing "a black theatrical standard -- a standard based on black lifestyle." Teer turned the theatre into a cultural incub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Artistic Director
An artistic director is the executive of an arts organization, particularly in a theatre or dance company, who handles the organization's artistic direction. They are generally a producer and director, but not in the sense of a mogul, since the organization is generally a non-profit organization. The artistic director of a theatre company is the individual with the overarching artistic control of the theatre's production choices, directorial choices, and overall artistic vision. In smaller theatres, the artistic director may be the founder of the theatre and the primary director of its plays. In larger non-profit theatres (often known in Canada and the United States as regional theatres), the artistic director may be appointed by the board of directors. Overview The artistic director of a performing dance company is similar to the musical director of an orchestra, the primary person responsible for planning a company's season. The artistic director's responsibilities can in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ruby Dee
Ruby Dee (October 27, 1922 – June 11, 2014) was an American actress, poet, playwright, screenwriter, journalist, and civil rights activist. She originated the role of "Ruth Younger" in the stage and film versions of ''A Raisin in the Sun'' (1961). Her other notable film roles include ''The Jackie Robinson Story'' (1950) and ''Do the Right Thing'' (1989). Dee was married to Ossie Davis, with whom she frequently performed until his death in 2005. For her performance as Mama Lucas in '' American Gangster'' (2007), Dee was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Female Actor in a Supporting Role. Dee was a Grammy, Emmy, Obie and Drama Desk winner. She was also a National Medal of Arts, Kennedy Center Honors and Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award recipient. Early life Dee was born on October 27, 1922, in Cleveland, Ohio, [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ossie Davis
Raiford Chatman "Ossie" Davis (December 18, 1917 – February 4, 2005) was an American actor, director, writer, and activist. He was married to Ruby Dee, with whom he frequently performed, until his death. He and his wife were named to the NAACP Image Awards Hall of Fame; were awarded the National Medal of ArtsLifetime Honors – National Medal of Arts and were recipients of the . He was inducted into the in 1994. Early life Raiford Chatman ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ntozake Shange
Ntozake Shange ( ; FilmReference.com. Retrieved October 27, 2018. October 18, 1948 – October 27, 2018) was an American playwright and poet. As a , she addressed issues relating to and Black power in much of her work. She is best known for her -winning play, '' |
Dramatist
A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder (as in a wheelwright or cartwright). The words combine to indicate a person who has "wrought" words, themes, and other elements into a dramatic form—a play. (The homophone with "write" is coincidental.) The first recorded use of the term "playwright" is from 1605, 73 years before the first written record of the term "dramatist". It appears to have been first used in a pejorative sense by Ben Jonson to suggest a mere tradesman fashioning works for the theatre. Jonson uses the word in his Epigram 49, which is thought to refer to John Marston: :''Epigram XLIX — On Playwright'' :PLAYWRIGHT me reads, and still my verses damns, :He says I want the tongue of epigrams ; :I have no salt, no bawdry he doth mea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
August Wilson
August Wilson ( Frederick August Kittel Jr.; April 27, 1945 – October 2, 2005) was an American playwright. He has been referred to as the "theater's poet of Black America". He is best known for a series of ten plays, collectively called ' (or ''The Century Cycle'')'','' which chronicle the experiences and heritage of the African-American community in the 20th century. Plays in the series include ''Fences'' (1987) and ''The Piano Lesson'' (1990), both of which won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, as well as ''Ma Rainey's Black Bottom'' (1984) and ''Joe Turner's Come and Gone'' (1988). In 2006, Wilson was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame. His works delve into the African-American experience as well as examinations of the human condition. Other themes range from the systemic and historical exploitation of African Americans, as well as race relations, identity, migration, and racial discrimination. Viola Davis said that Wilson's writing "captures our humor, our vulnera ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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