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NEGRO ENSEMBLE COMPANY ATTEMPTS COMEBACK: Historic group to launch new season at Signature Theater.
*Off Broadway's Signature Theater has announced it will stage an entire season of revivals from the Negro Ensemble Company, a New York City-based theater company established in 1967 by playwright Douglas Turner Ward.
Charles Weldon, a 38-year vet of the organization and its current artistic director, is hoping to breathe new life into the NEC with forthcoming presentations of Leslie Lee's 1974 drama "The First Breeze of Summer"(bowing Aug. 5), 1984's "Home" by Samm-Art Williams (Nov. 11) and Charles Fuller's 1981 play "Zooman and the Sign" (March 3).
In the 1970s, the NEC was the place for a black actor to get noticed. But after a long period of decline, the company has produced only a few shows in the last several years, and most of them in small theaters with low budgets.
Weldon is hoping to turn the tide with the NEC's residency at the Signature Theater and the help of alums like Tony winner Ruben Santiago-Hudson (director of "Seven Guitars"), who is directing "Breeze" for the upcoming series.
Other NEC alums include Phylicia Rashad, Denzel Washington, Laurence Fishburne and Samuel L. Jackson, as well as Angela Bassett, Debbi Morgan and the late actresses Roxie Roker and Esther Rolle.
Santiago-Hudson hopes the Signature shows will renew interest in the company.
"I want to remind my colleagues and friends and those that might have the wherewithal to fund these kinds of plays to step up to the plate.
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