Negro ensemble heads Off Broadway

Charles Weldon hoping to turn org around The list of alums of the Negro Ensemble Company reads like a who's who of prominent black actors: Phylicia Rashad. Denzel Washington. Laurence Fishburne. Samuel L. Jackson. 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. Charles Weldon, a 38-year vet of the org and its current a.d., hopes all that is about to change. Off Broadway's Signature Theater has opted to stage an entire season of NEC revivals, a slate that includes 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). It's a... [read full story]