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58-514: Since its founding in 1964, the New Heritage Theatre Group has produced and co-presented thousands of theatrical, film, concert, and music productions including The Harlem Shakespeare Festival , presented in collaboration with Take Wing And Soar Productions, to showcase classically trained actors of color; Tony-nominated Asinamali! ; the Tony and GRAMMY-nominated Broadway musical Sarafina !;

116-475: A murder mystery play which is the longest-running West End show , it has by far the longest run of any play in the world, with its 29,500th performance having taken place as of February 2024. Contemporary playwrights in the United States are affected by recent declines in theatre attendance. No longer the only outlet for serious drama or entertaining comedies, theatrical productions must use ticket sales as

174-622: A black-owned film company. Rivers’ theatrical productions include a collaboration with Committed Artists South Africa, Duma Ndlovu and South African playwright Mbongeni Ngema to present the OBIE award-winning “Woza Albert!;” Tony-nominated South African play, “Asinamali,” which was executive produced on Broadway by Harry Belafonte, Miriam Makeba, Paul Simon, Hamilton Fish, and others; the Tony and GRAMMY-nominated hit Broadway musical “Sarafina;” and in partnership with Lincoln Center and The Brooklyn Academy of Music, “Township Fever.” These plays brought to light

232-629: A federally financed anti-poverty program in Harlem. New Heritage Repertory Theatre, under Furman's leadership, produced over 35 plays including Strivers Row written by Abram Hill, co-founder of the American Negro Theatre . Furman also directed the Three Penny Opera featuring famed actress Geraldine Fitzgerald . Roger Furman was born on March 22, 1924, in New Jersey and studied theatre arts at

290-507: A form of playwright. Outside of the Western world there is Indian classical drama , with one of the oldest known playwrights being Śudraka , whose attributed plays can be dated to the second century BC. The Nāṭya Shāstra , a text on the performing arts from between 500BC-500AD, categorizes playwrights as being among the members of a theatre company, although playwrights were generally the highest in social status, with some being kings. In

348-448: A one-day tribute to Harlem and has evolved over 46 years to become a month-long celebration of the community's economic, political and cultural history. Rivers is the former chairman of the Board of Directors of Community Works, a nonprofit arts and education organization. Rivers was President of NY Entertainment and Sports Advisors (ESA) when ESA served as business manager to Count Basie and

406-553: 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 or Thomas Dekker : Jonson described himself as a poet, not a playwright, since plays during that time were written in meter and so were regarded as the province of poets. This view was held as late as the early 19th century. The term "playwright" later again lost this negative connotation. The earliest playwrights in Western literature with surviving works are

464-541: A play that opened at Johannesburg's Market Theater and toured in Europe and America as the most successful play to come out of South Africa to Harlem's New Heritage Theatre. The successful impact of Striver's Row inspired Rivers to look beyond the African American experience and reach across the world to introduce Harlem to the works of Black South African playwrights and actors, creating an opportunity to bring lessons from

522-635: A playwright, winning awards for his play The Phoenix at both the New York International Fringe Festival in 1999 and the Route 66 American Playwriting Competition in 2000. Today, theatre companies have new play development programs meant to develop new American voices in playwriting. Many regional theatres have hired dramaturges and literary managers in an effort to showcase various festivals for new work, or bring in playwrights for residencies. Funding through national organizations, such as

580-798: A set for Tin Top Valley , starring Fred O'Neil, produced by American Negro Theatre. Furman's trademark was imaginative headgear and he believed in Harlem as a fertile theatrical seedbed. In addition to his acting and directing chores, Furman taught courses on the History of Black Drama at New York University, Rutgers , and Hartford University and was a co-founder of the Black Theater Alliance , an organization of performance groups. His directing chores include Bertolt Brecht 's Three Penny Opera , Wine In The Wilderness (1969) and, Mojo: A Black Love Story (1970) by Alice Childress . Furman wrote and directed

638-525: A source of income, which has caused many of them to reduce the number of new works being produced. For example, Playwrights Horizons produced only six plays in the 2002–03 seasons, compared with thirty-one in 1973–74. Playwrights commonly encounter difficulties in getting their shows produced and often cannot earn a living through their plays alone, leading them to take up other jobs to supplement their incomes. Many playwrights are also film makers . For instance, filmmaker Morgan Spurlock began his career as

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696-558: A stricter interpretation of Aristotle, as this long-lost work came to light in the late 15th century. The neoclassical ideal, which was to reach its apogee in France during the 17th century, dwelled upon the unities , of action, place, and time. This meant that the playwright had to construct the play so that its "virtual" time would not exceed 24 hours, that it would be restricted to a single setting, and that there would be no subplots. Other terms, such as verisimilitude and decorum, circumscribed

754-956: A variety of programming in partnership with Harlem Arts Alliance including the Kwanzaa Artisan Marketplace in partnership with the American Museum of Natural History, The 4 Pillar Summer Arts Program, and Deconstructing Harlem's Black Theaters which is a town hall discussion in partnership with Coalitions of Theaters of Color and Harlem Hospital. Harlem Arts Alliance provides a critical set of programs and services to its members which also includes performance and exhibition opportunities, professional and creative development workshops, Harlem Arts Advocacy Week, grants to artists and art organizations, and monthly meetings designed for information exchange and networking. Since 2003, Shades of Truth Theatre in collaboration with Voza Rivers and New Heritage Theatre Group has produced various plays regarding

812-615: Is Hans Sachs (1494–1576) who wrote 198 dramatic works. In England, The Second Shepherds' Play of the Wakefield Cycle is the best known early farce. However, farce did not appear independently in England until the 16th century with the work of John Heywood (1497–1580). Playwright William Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted. Most playwrights of

870-420: Is a partial listing of productions New Heritage Theatre Group has produced or co-produced in conjunction with one or more of its collaborating partners. Playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays , which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between characters and is intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading . Ben Jonson coined

928-457: Is a women-led 501©3 theatre company dedicated to supporting women, youth, and classically trained actors of color, founded by Debra Ann Byrd. Take Wing And Soar Productions, in partnership with New Heritage Theatre Group, have presented multiple collaborations including a main-stage production of Oscar Wilde's The Important of Being Earnest (2013), directed by Kevin Connell. In the summer of 2013,

986-661: Is an American producer of theater, film, music, and live events, born in Harlem, New York . Rivers' work as a theater producer, music executive, event producer, and documentary filmmaker has been presented in the United States, Japan, South Africa, Togo , Nigeria, Cuba, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Rivers is the chairman and co- founder of the Harlem Arts Alliance, an art services membership organization founded in 2001. He

1044-438: Is an archaic English term for a craftsperson 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

1102-647: Is cited in Warren Hoffman's The Great White Way: Race and the Broadway Musical . Additional directing work by Furman includes the award-winning Montezuma's Revenge , Harlem's classic On Strivers Row (1949), A Day of Absent , Hip, Black and Angry (1967), The Gimmick (1968), To Kill a Devil , Man In The Family , Harlem Heyday , Another Shade of Harlem , No Snakes In The Grass , Monseigneur Baptiste The Con Man and Fun in Games . New Heritage Repertory Theatre

1160-408: Is committed to the preservation of Afro-Cuban folklore, as well as the encouragement of cross-cultural understanding of dance and music. New Heritage Theatre Group partners and collaborates with many arts and culture organizations including Harlem Arts Alliance , a not-for-profit membership-based arts advocacy organization, founded in 2001. Harlem Arts Alliance is committed to its mission of nurturing

1218-534: Is still useful to playwrights today is the " French scene ", which is a scene in a play where the beginning and end are marked by a change in the makeup of the group of characters onstage rather than by the lights going up or down or the set being changed. Notable playwrights: Greek theater was alive and flourishing on the island of Crete. During the Cretan Renaissance two notable Greek playwrights Georgios Chortatzis and Vitsentzos Kornaros were present in

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1276-689: Is the executive producer and founding member of the New Heritage Theatre Group (NHTG), established in 1964, and executive producer and co-founder of IMPACT Repertory Theatre, the Oscar and GRAMMY-nominated youth and music division of New Heritage Theatre Group. Rivers serves as the First Vice President of the Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce and the co-founder, Vice Chairman, and Executive Producer of HARLEM WEEK, which began in 1974 as

1334-462: The Ancient Greeks . These early plays were for annual Athenian competitions among play writers held around the 5th century BC. Such notables as Aeschylus , Sophocles , Euripides , and Aristophanes established forms still relied on by their modern counterparts. We have complete texts extant by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides . The origins of Athenian tragedy remain obscure, though by

1392-645: The Dramatic Workshop of the New School for Social Research under Erwin Piscator . Furman worked as an apprentice under Rafael Ríos Rey at the National Theatre of Puerto Rico and was a former student at the American Negro Theatre (ANT) with Sidney Potier , Clarice Taylor, Harry Belafonte , Ruby Dee and, Gertrude Jeannette. Furman was the youngest person at the American Negro Theatre commissioned to design

1450-412: The Harlem community. In 1983 upon Furman's death, Voza Rivers , a co-founding member of NHTG (1964) and award-winning music and theatre producer, took over the company and reorganized under the name New Heritage Theatre Group (NHTG). Rivers is an accomplished theatre, music, film and, events producer and is recognized as one of the country's leading African American theatre producers. Since 1983, under

1508-643: The Harlem Shakespeare Festival was launched by Take Wing and Soar Productions and New Heritage Theatre Group. The annual Festival's mission is to foster understanding and unity in the arts by producing special events and plays with diverse casts and to create center stage opportunities for classically trained actors of color. Productions include the all-female, multi-racial mainstage production of Othello: The Moor of Venice (2019). • City College Aaron Davis Hall • Apollo Theatre Foundation • Columbia University Arts Initiative • Columbia University School of

1566-600: The National Endowment for the Arts and the Theatre Communications Group , encouraged the partnerships of professional theatre companies and emerging playwrights. Playwrights will often have a cold reading of a script in an informal sitdown setting, which allows them to evaluate their own plays and the actors performing them. Cold reading means that the actors haven't rehearsed the work, or may be seeing it for

1624-481: The 20th anniversary of Nelson Mandela's historic inauguration as South Africa's first black president. In 2015, Executive Producer and Founding Member of New Heritage Theatre Group Voza Rivers joined U.S. representatives on a state trade mission to Cuba. The delegation met with senior officials of the Cuban government on trade, business, and tourism to continue the process of normalization and cultural exchange between Harlem,

1682-449: The 4th century BCE, Aristotle wrote his Poetics , in which he analyzed the principle of action or praxis as the basis for tragedy. He then considered elements of drama: plot ( μύθος mythos ), character ( ἔθος ethos ), thought ( dianoia ), diction ( lexis ), music ( melodia ), and spectacle ( opsis ). Since the myths on which Greek tragedy were based were widely known, plot had to do with

1740-536: The 5th century it was institutionalised in competitions ( agon ) held as part of festivities celebrating Dionysos (the god of wine and fertility ). As contestants in the City Dionysia's competition (the most prestigious of the festivals to stage drama), playwrights were required to present a tetralogy of plays (though the individual works were not necessarily connected by story or theme), which usually consisted of three tragedies and one satyr play. For

1798-783: The African Diaspora cultural communities featuring music, film, drama, talk-backs, symposiums, play-writing, poetry, fiction workshops and more New Heritage Films & Harlemwood Film Festival explores issues of the African diaspora through film. Annually, New Heritage Films features documentaries and films in the Harlem community from emerging and established filmmakers through the Harlemwood Film Festival. Productions include Hughes' Dream Harlem (2002), Savoy King (2012), A-Alike (2003) and Chapter and Verse (2015). A partial listing of films produced by New Heritage Films includes

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1856-534: The Apollo, Lincoln Center, the Public Theater, The United Nations, Major League Soccer's Tribute to Pele. IMPACT has been featured in several television programs including ABC, CBS, NBC. The Roger Furman Reading Series works with emerging and established playwrights on early drafts of their scripts to produce their work in front of a live audience. The series also provides a vehicle for celebrity artists associated with

1914-655: The Arts • Community Works • El Museo Del Barrio • Frank Silvera's Writers Workshop • Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce • Harbor Conservatory for the Performing Arts • Harlem Arts Alliance • Harlem Jazz and Music Festival • Harlem Week • Museum of the City of New York • National Black Sports and Entertainment Hall of Fame • New Federal Theatre • The National Museum of Catholic Arts • Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture • Tupac Amaru Shakur Center for The Arts This list

1972-657: The Basie Orchestra; two-time Tony nominee South African Playwright Mbongeni Ngema; Tony-winning actor Ben Harney (Dreamgirls); GRAMMY award-winning rock band, Living Color; singer-songwriter Me’Shell NdegéOcello; and partner with Percy Sutton in Apollo Theater Artist Management. The GRAMMY-nominated Rivers has served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Apollo Records, President of PRG Records, President and chief executive officer of Voz Entertainment Group, and President of Greenlight Films,

2030-633: The Black experience including Celeste Bedford Walker's Black Wall Street and Camp Logan . Together they have also presented Jeff Stetson's The Meeting at venues throughout the Tri-State area and across the United States. A partial listing of additional co-productions include The Day Harlem Saved Dr. King and Black Wall Street: Ten Stories High , a series of short plays that chronicle the rise and fall of successful Black Towns that were established during and post-reconstruction. Take Wing And Soar Productions, Inc.

2088-669: The Japan Chamber of Commerce, The Japan Society, and The Consulate General of Japan in support of breaking down barriers of cultural misunderstanding. In 2012 New Heritage Theatre Group produced the 100th anniversary of the Sakura Cherry Blossom Festival in Harlem. New Heritage Theatre Groups connection to South African theatre began in 1984 when Rivers and his production team Andre Robinson, Phyllis Yvonne Stickney, and his South African producing team Duma Ndlovu and Mbongeni Ngema transferred South African play Woza Albert !,

2146-550: The Middle Ages, the earliest of which is The Play of the Greenwood by Adam de la Halle in 1276. It contains satirical scenes and folk material such as faeries and other supernatural occurrences. Farces also rose dramatically in popularity after the 13th century. The majority of these plays come from France and Germany and are similar in tone and form, emphasizing sex and bodily excretions. The best known playwright of farces

2204-615: The Obie award-winning Woza Albert! ; The Huey P. Newton Story and Township Fever . NHTG was established in 1964 as the New Heritage Repertory Theatre (NHRT) by the late Roger Furman, a playwright , director , actor , and lecturer . Furman's career in Harlem began at the American Negro Theater in the 1940s. He began New Heritage Repertory Theater (NHRT) in 1964 as a street theater while employed with HARYOU-ACT ,

2262-605: The Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 and the end of the 17th century, classical ideas were in vogue. As a result, critics of the time mostly rated Shakespeare below John Fletcher and Ben Jonson. This period saw the first professional woman playwright, Aphra Behn . As a reaction to the decadence of Charles II era productions, sentimental comedy grew in popularity. Playwrights like Colley Cibber and Richard Steele believed that humans were inherently good but capable of being led astray. The Italian Renaissance brought about

2320-515: The South African Apartheid to the Harlem community. NHTG produced a series of plays in the 1980s — including Woza Albert (1985)!, Asinamli! (1986) and Sarafina ! (1987) that educated Harlemites about the apartheid struggle. Asinimali , a play about the celebration of resistance, opened in 1986 at Roger Furman's New Heritage Repertory Theatre (now known as New Heritage Theatre Group) just two weeks after an attack by an armed mob, killing

2378-696: The US, and Havana, Cuba. The first annual Harlem/Havana Music and Cultural Festival was launched in the summer of 2016, during the 42nd anniversary of the HARLEMWEEK Festival at The Cathedral Church of St.John Divine. The annual Harlem/Havana Music and Cultural Festival celebrates the ongoing harmonious relationship between the two countries with a lineup of Afro-Cuban jazz, dance performances, workshops, photography installations, Cuban cuisine, and art exhibitions. New Heritage Theatre Group has also presented productions featuring Oyu Oro Afro-Cuban Dance company. Oyo Oro

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2436-677: The United States. IMPACT was OSCAR and GRAMMY -nominated for their song Raise It Up from the movie August Rush starring Robin Williams . In December 2014, IMPACT performed a 20-minute piece in front of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge alongside youth performers from youth empowerment organizations The Door and the CityKids Foundation. IMPACT has also appeared in the films Disappearing Acts and Hughes' Dreams Harlem (2002). Live performances include People Magazines Next Great Artists Showcase,

2494-470: The United States. New Heritage Theatre Group has a long-standing historical relationship with Japan. Collaborations have resulted in then-Japanese Crown Prince Akihito's 1987 visit to Harlem and dozens of concerts in Japan and New York featuring Japanese and African American entertainers. New Heritage and its collaborating partners produce benefit concerts, theatrical productions, and exhibitions in partnership with

2552-448: The ages of 12 and 19 with original staged performances in front of live audiences totaling over 100,000. IMPACT’S ongoing performance program, creative labs, and twelve-week intensive artist and activist training programs are tuition-free. Several hundred IMPACT alumnae have attended or are currently enrolled in college and graduate schools that include top-tier historically black colleges and universities and IVEY league institutions across

2610-420: The ancient Greeks, playwriting involved poïesis , "the act of making". This is the source of the English word poet . Despite Chinese Theatre having performers dated back to the 6th century BC with You Meng , their perspective of theatre was such that plays had no other role than "performer" or "actor", but given that the performers were also the ones who invented their performances, they could be considered

2668-404: The arrangement and selection of existing material. Character was determined by choice and by action. Tragedy is mimesis —"the imitation of an action that is serious". He developed his notion of hamartia , or tragic flaw, an error in judgment by the main character or protagonist , which provides the basis for the "conflict-driven" play. There were also a number of secular performances staged in

2726-453: The artistic growth of artists and the organizational development of arts organizations based in Harlem and surrounding communities. Harlem Arts Alliance (HAA) bridges gaps between artists and major arts institutions, amplifying the unique voices of its member artists and expanding the conversations surrounding their work through workshops, showcases, and presentation programs featuring the work of its members. New Heritage Theatre Group co-produces

2784-595: The award-winning Hughes' Dream Harlem (2002), Sonia Sanchez: Shake Loose Memories (2011) Percy Sutton: A Man for All Seasons , Da Zone , Drive By: A Love Story (1997), The Black New Yorkers , Burning Sands , The 95th Anniversary of the National Urban League, the 110th Anniversary of The Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce, Harlem is...Music , Harlem is...Theater , and Harlem is... Gospel documentaries. NHTG seeks to bring attention to works by international writers, directors, and artists who lack exposure in

2842-594: The company to return and perform in Harlem. Highlights of the Roger Furman Reading Series include producing plays for award-winning actors, playwright and author Daniel Beaty and, playwright and radio host Esther Armah . In 2015 Voza Rivers and New Heritage Theatre Group partnered with MIST Harlem to present the staged reading series Bold New Voices, Past, Present and Future. The Bold New Voices series presented and created stories about people of color. Programs encompassed African American, Asian, Hispanic and,

2900-546: The critically acclaimed play The Long Black Block (1972) with music by Jackie McClean and co-authored and directed Fat Tuesday with Dee Robinson. Roger Furman edited the 35th-anniversary edition of the New York Times Bestseller The Black Book , an encyclopedic look at the black experience in America from 1619 through the 1940s. Furman's work as a set designer and the founder of New Heritage Theatre Group

2958-479: The first time, and usually, the technical requirements are minimal. The O'Neill Festival offers summer retreats for young playwrights to develop their work with directors and actors. Playwriting collectives like 13P and Orbiter 3 gather members together to produce, rather than develop, new works. The idea of the playwriting collective is in response to plays being stuck in the development process and never advancing to production. Voza Rivers Voza Rivers

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3016-486: The latter part of the 16th century. The plays of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing , Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , Friedrich Schiller , and other Sturm und Drang playwrights inspired a growing faith in feeling and instinct as guides to moral behavior and were part of the German romanticism movement. Aleksandr Ostrovsky was Russia's first professional playwright). Author and playwright Agatha Christie wrote The Moustrap ,

3074-517: The leadership of Voza Rivers , NHTG presents entertaining, informative theatrical productions, staged readings and, documentary shorts and films, the mission was expanded to provide training, experience, and international exposure to veteran and emerging artists. IMPACT Repertory Theatre , the youth division of New Heritage Theatre Group, was established in 1997 by Jamal Joseph , a U.S. writer, director, producer, poet, activist, and educator. Since its founding, IMPACT has featured over 1000 youth between

3132-407: The period typically collaborated with others at some point, as critics agree Shakespeare did, mostly early and late in his career. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. In England, after the interregnum , and Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, there was a move toward neoclassical dramaturgy. Between

3190-553: The shows local promoter as a reaction to the plays political stance. In 2014 New Heritage Theatre Group was represented on a panel at the Apollo Theatre along with former Mayor David Dinkins, actor and activist Harry Belafonte , Black Star News publisher Milton Allimadi , National Black Theatre CEO Sade Lythcott, South African Consul General George Monyemangene that was part of a four-day festival that highlighted Harlem's longstanding relationship with South Africa, also celebrating

3248-553: The subject matter significantly. For example, verisimilitude limits of the unities. Decorum fitted proper protocols for behavior and language on stage. In France, contained too many events and actions, thus, violating the 24-hour restriction of the unity of time. Neoclassicism never had as much traction in England, and Shakespeare 's plays are directly opposed to these models, while in Italy, improvised and bawdy commedia dell'arte and opera were more popular forms. One structural unit that

3306-594: The term "playwright" and is the first person in English literature to refer to playwrights as separate from poets . The earliest playwrights in Western literature with surviving works are the Ancient Greeks . William Shakespeare is amongst the most famous playwrights in literature, both in England and across the world. The word "play" is from Middle English pleye , from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word wright

3364-466: Was awarded a training program grant from Columbia University School of Theatre to teach young Black and Puerto Ricans the technical aspects of theatre. In 1973, Roger Furman was a recipient of the AUDELCO Board of Directors Awards and was nominated for best director in 1975 for Fat Tuesday . His New Heritage Repertory Theatre was honored by Fibonacci Inc. for its contribution to the rich cultural life of

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