Lost and Found 2 flyer(2) 12 10 09
December 7, 2009. An over-capacity crowd bombarded Negro Ensemble Company Repertory’s last production Lost and Found. On December 10-11th Lost and Found 2 exposes more of the brilliant plays from the NEC archives! From 1967 to the 90’s, Negro Ensemble Company, the second oldest black theater company in the world, was the best place for black playwrights to sent their plays for production. When the company closed temporarily, in the 80’s, boxes of scripts and memorabilia unaccounted for. Excerpts from six of the hundreds of archived works re-discovered at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture are returning to the stage.
Alysia Joy Powell, emerging playwright/actress/singer and new NEC Rep member, will debute her play, NANA B’S CONDO BLDG, as part of NEC Repertory’s: Lost and Found 2 is on December 10 and 11th at 8pm Where Eagles Dare Theatre 347 W 36 St 13fl in New York,
NY. Featured Artists include: Callistus Oniyuke, Kubbi, Chrystal Asbury, Omar Bah, Charles Pernell Simpson, Jackie Lowe, Teresa Lasley Alysia Joy Powell and Malikia Causey
“Astounding work!says NEC Training Program Instructor and Facilitator and NEC Alum, ..”I see a young Denzel, Sam Jackson, L Scott Caldwell, Frances Foster on this stage. Negro Ensemble Company’s Savannah Black & Blue
Negro Ensemble Co : Clinton Lowe held by Ciera Payton and Jamie Patton in Savannah Black & Blue by Raymond Jones to Sold Out Performances at Shetler Theatre NYC Theatre
by Raymond Jones, which played to several weeks of SOLD OUT audiences was developed in Leslie Lee’s Play Writing Workshop at NEC Rep. NEC is extending the play in the next few weeks. NEC is giving unpresidented opportunities to new artists. Stellar performances by NEC Training Program participants: Ciera Payton, Kimberlyn Crawford, Ohene Cornelius, Tomike Ogugua and Clinton Lowe insured Savannah Black & Blue’s huge box office success. NEC’s new partnership with Riverside Church’s Theatre of the Oppressed began with monthly meets. The meets offer free information and resources to artists and an opportunity to share in a fiscal sponsorship with NEC, while having access to low cost space and artist discounts. The group meets 10am -1pm every first Saturday at Manhattan’s Riverside Church’s Multi-Purpose Room in partnership with Jeremiah Drake’s Theatre of the Oppressed. In August 10 NEC Rep members were invited to meet one-to-one with CBS VP Fern Orenstein, Josie J. Thomas CBS SVP Diversity Casting and and CBS NY’s Manager, Diversity, Barbara Matos.
“These artists give us hope for Black Theatre’s future.”says The NEC Actor’s Training Program instructor, Marie McKinney. “And now audiences will witness an important historic find! Audiences and actors get access to this extraordinary, unknown material.” In addition, emerging playwright Alysia Joy Powell will premiere scenes from her original works for veteran writers like Laurence Holder and Leslie Lee and directors like NEC’s Artistic Director and NEC alum, Charles Weldon.
NEC Rep: l to r Quester Hannah, Charles Weldon, Leslie Lee, Jeanette Bookhard, Douglas O. Walker, Laurence Holder
Emerging actor/playwright Quester Hannah, honored at Lost and Found in July 2009, went on to star in Susan Lori-Park’s Top Dog Underdog in Pittsburgh and Barbara Asare Bediako is producing her one-woman show.
The forty-two year tradition of The NEC’s Training Program’s, LOST AND FOUND 2 continues to support emerging actors who have completed NEC’s rigorous training program. NEC’s training combines solid groundwork in character technique, script analysis and voice production with ethnic culture. “We use the time-honored work of masters such as Michael Chekhov and Stella Adler as a foundation and bring it into an African American cultural context,” says McKinney.” According to Charles Weldon, NEC’s Artistic Director, “We get calls all the times from actors who have graduated from big schools who are hungry for information about their own culture.” Auditions are held by appt. Contact necartz@gmail.com.
LOST AND FOUND boasts scenes from brilliant vintage plays by unknown playwrights, and famed writers like Alice Childress and Derek Walcott, representing a unique portfolio of African American life The program features pieces from the NEC archives and Music: Alice Childress’ String, Derek Walcott’s Upon This Rock or The Isle of Noises, Charles Fuller’s In the Deepest Part of Sleep, Laurence Holder’s Monk ‘n’ Bud, Ron Milner’s Don’t Get God Started
About Negro Ensemble Company:
The Negro Ensemble Company and NEC Training Program were first started by Robert Hooks, Douglas Turner Ward and Gerald Krone in 1967. Robert Hooks broke down the walls of his apartment and taught acting to a young Hattie Winston. Rosalind Cash, Frances Foster, Graham Brown and Bill Jay, among the original company members. This Pultizer Prize-winning company, with 200 productions on its roster, boasts a long list of notable alumni, such 
as Laurence Fishburne, Angela Bassett, Adolf Caesar, Phylicia Rashad, Samuel L Jackson, Roscoe Lee Brown, and many more. NEC looks forward to another extended run of Savannah Black & Blue by Raymond Jones with hilarious writing and brilliant ensemble work. NEC received 11 Audelco Award Nominations for its plays last year. The company awarded $1000 to emerging playwright, Antoinette Nwandu, this spring at Tisch NYU. The current NEC REP program is successfully fostering a new generation of performing artists and writers, who have, in the last year, played on HBO’s The Wire, Law and Order, NEC’s Zooman, Manhattan Theatre Club, Theatre Row, NY Comedy Club, New Federal Theatre, Washington Square Shakespeare Theatre, Gala Hispanic Theatre, Atlantic Theatre, Targit Margin Theatre, Sonya Sanchez’s The Bronx is Next, Susan Lori-Parks Top Dog Underdog,, Theatre of the Oppressed,, Wooly mm New Heritage Theater, La Mama, Hip Hop Monologues, Commercials and 3 NEC members are invited participants of Harvard’s Advanced Training Program: Moscow.
Award winning, NEC resident playwright, Leslie Lee continues momentum with The Emerging and Classic Playwrights Series in the fall ,also at Where Eagles Dare Theatre. Charles Weldon became the current Artistic Director 5 years ago and stars in August Wilson’s Radio Golf. Charles started performing with NEC in 1970 and now returns as an alumnus of The Negro Ensemble Company and active board member, expanding its fiscal standing and ushering the company into the new millennium.
NEC’s Monthly Meets now offers $45/yr associate memberships to The Field, Fractured Atlas and Materials for the Arts (a $100/yr value) www.thefield.org . NEC offers information, resources and opportunities to produce arts projects and outreach programs with NEC team support.
NEC’s Actor’s Training Program is holding auditions and interviews for its ongoing classes for professional actor’s and playwrights. Email picture and resume to necartz@gmail.com for audition appointment, and semi-private ongoing classes. more about The Negro Ensemble Company’s Training Program
Lost and Found 2 Reservations necartz@gmail.com 347 560 3312 tickets $10 leave your name, phone and number of tickets.
