Amas Musical Theatre, also known as the Rosetta LeNoire Theatre Academy and the Mainstage Musical Theatre, and formerly known as the Amas Repertory Theatre, Inc. and the Eubie Blake Youth Theatre, is a non-profit

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

-based theatre organization founded by

Rosetta LeNoire Rosetta LeNoire (born Rosetta Olive Burton; August 8, 1911 – March 17, 2002) was an American stage, film, and television actress. She was known to contemporary audiences for her work in television. She had regular roles on such series as ' ...

. The name stems from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

word "amare", meaning "to love". "Amas" is the active indicative present form of "you love". The Academy puts on both a showcase and an

off-off-Broadway Off-off-Broadway theaters are smaller New York City theaters than Broadway and off-Broadway theaters, and usually have fewer than 100 seats. The off-off-Broadway movement began in 1958 as part of a response to perceived commercialism of the prof ...

performance at the end of the year, featuring inner-city and other teenagers. Amas is an anchor theatre tenant of

The Players Theatre The Players Theatre, located at 115 MacDougal Street between West 3rd and Bleecker Streets in the West Village neighborhood of Manhattan, is one of the oldest commercial Off-Broadway theatres in operation in New York City. The Players Theatre c ...

, a theatre located in

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

. The theatre has produced over 60 original musicals, including '' Bubbling Brown Sugar'' and ''Bojangles!''.

History

The organization was founded in 1968 by

as the Amas Repertory Theatre to promote interracial and

color-blind casting Color-blind casting, also referred to as non-traditional casting, integrated casting, or blind casting is the practice of casting without considering the actor's ethnicity, skin color, body shape, sex or gender. A representative of the Actors' ...

. In her words, it was a place "where all people could work together, with respect for individual skills and talents, rather than for race or color." In 1997, a newspaper called the New York Beacon wrote that "Rosetta created non-traditional casting before the phrase itself was created." Amas' first production, ''Soul, Yesterday and Today'', which was based on the poetry of

Langston Hughes James Mercer Langston Hughes (February 1, 1901 – May 22, 1967) was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. One of the earliest innovators of the literary art form called jazz poetry, Hug ...

, held its

rehearsal A rehearsal is an activity in the performing arts that occurs as preparation for a performance in music, theatre, dance and related arts, such as opera, musical theatre and film production. It is undertaken as a form of practising, to ensure t ...

s in the

basement A basement or cellar is one or more floors of a building that are completely or partly below the ground floor. It generally is used as a utility space for a building, where such items as the furnace, water heater, breaker panel or fuse box, ...

of LeNoire's home in the

Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

. In 1989, the name was changed to Amas Musical Theatre. In 1977, Amas moved to

Fifth Avenue Fifth Avenue is a major and prominent thoroughfare in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It stretches north from Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village to West 143rd Street in Harlem. It is one of the most expensive shopping stre ...

and 104th Street, then in 1992 to the West 42nd Street theatre district. The organization's youth program, now known as the Amas Musical Theatre Teen Academy, was known as the Eubie Blake Youth Theatre from the 1970s to 1980s, where training was offered to youths ages 10 to 18.

Production history

Theatre programs

In the past 10 years, Amas has worked with over 60 creative teams in the development of new musicals.

Six O'Clock Musical Theatre Lab

This is a development program for writers, lyricists, and composers to mount staged readings of new musicals. Each work generally receives three or four performances.

Workshop Program

This is a program which lets composers, lyricists, and librettists work on a more polished and complete version of a new work. The productions generally entail a two to three-week

period with a series of performances.

Mainstage Program

This is a program which gives select musicals a fully produced

off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

run for four to six weeks with attendance by critics. The productions generally run under an

Equity Equity may refer to: Finance, accounting and ownership * Equity (finance), ownership of assets that have liabilities attached to them ** Stock, equity based on original contributions of cash or other value to a business ** Home equity, the dif ...

Letter of Agreement contract.

Educational programs

Rosetta LeNoire Musical Theatre Academy

This is a performance and training program which enrolls up to 30 teenagers and

young adults A young adult is generally a person in the years following adolescence. Definitions and opinions on what qualifies as a young adult vary, with works such as Erik Erikson's stages of human development significantly influencing the definition of ...

between the ages of 14 and 21 in all-day classes and rehearsals on Saturdays and some Sundays from October through May. Sixty percent of students receive full or partial Scholarships. The program ends with a musical which runs for two weeks in an

theatre.

Immigration Experience

This is an in-residence set of workshops for middle and high school students consisting of 32 visits specializing in

playwriting 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 ...

, theatre, and

musical composition Musical composition can refer to an original piece or work of music, either vocal or instrumental, the structure of a musical piece or to the process of creating or writing a new piece of music. People who create new compositions are called ...

. Students also research their families' and communities' immigration histories which are turned into writings and songs performed in front of their school and extended community.

Broadway Babies

This is an in-residence program which runs from 4 to 12 weeks for younger children. Students make a mini-version of a

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

show which relates to themes or curriculum being studied in their class.

Our America: The Civil Rights Movement through Song and Story

This is an in-residence program which explores the

Civil Rights Movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...

, Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...

, and Protest and Peace Songs, among other things. Eventually, there is a presentation.

Passport Around the World

This is an in-residence program with 18 artist visits based on the social studies curriculum of the classroom. Students create their own US Passport which includes a picture and stamped with flags which they will "visit"/study. The program concludes with a final presentation of the pieces studied.

Urban Mythography: Journey of the Hero

This is a program for elementary and

middle school A middle school (also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school) is an educational stage which exists in some countries, providing education between primary school and secondary school. ...

students to study Native American, Asian, classical Western and European

mythologies Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrati ...

and heroic icons. The class creates a piece to be rehearsed and presented to their school.

Awards

* Mayor's Award of Honor for Art and Culture * Manhattan Borough's President Award – Excellence in Theatre * Audience Development Committee (AUDELCO) Award – 1979, 1982, 1984, 1986 *

National Medal of Arts The National Medal of Arts is an award and title created by the United States Congress in 1984, for the purpose of honoring artists and Patronage, patrons of the arts. A prestigious American honor, it is the highest honor given to artists and ar ...

(given to LeNoire) – 1999

References

{{reflist Youth theatre companies