[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 36 (Monday, March 19, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E387]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

[[Page E387]]



    IN HONOR OF WOODIE KING, JR.'S, NEW FEDERAL THEATRE ON ITS 30TH 
                              ANNIVERSARY

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. CAROLYN B. MALONEY

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, March 19, 2001

  Mrs. MALONEY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to 
Woodie King, Jr.'s, New Federal Theatre, which will be honored at a 
celebration of its 30th anniversary on March 25, 2001. For 30 years, 
Woodie King, Jr.'s, New Federal Theatre has provided emerging 
playwrights the opportunity to have their work produced and given 
employment opportunities to minority actors, directors, and producers.
  The celebration will be hosted by such luminary actors as, among 
others, Debbie Allen and Avery Brooks, and Angela Bassett, Ossie Davis, 
Ruby Dee, Leslie Uggams, Shirley Verrett, and Susan Taylor. Chairs for 
the event will be Maya Angelou, Camille O. Cosby, Toni Fay, Byron 
Lewis, and Percy Sutton. Sydney Poitier serves as an advisor. Along 
with celebrating the anniversary of the New Federal Theatre, the event 
will also honor the Shubert's Gerald Schoenfield, directors Lloyd 
Richards and Shauneille Perry, producers Wynn Handman, Phillip Rose, 
and Michael Bevins, the Coca Cola Foundation education director. 
Posthumous honorees include photographer Bert Andrews and costume 
designer Judy Dearing.
  Woodie King Jr.'s New Federal Theatre presented its first production 
in the 1970-1971 season and has produced more than 175 plays, including 
the award-winning plays For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/
When the Rainbow is Enuf, Child of the Sun, and Black Girl. Among the 
many notable directors whose work has been shown at the New Federal 
Theatre include Laurence Holder, Damien Lake, and Ron Milner. Some of 
the more well-known actors who have performed at the theater include 
Morgan Freeman, Denzel Washington, and Debbie Morgan.
  The New Federal Theatre is named after Woodie King Jr., the founder 
and producing director of the New Federal Theatre and National Black 
Touring Circuit in New York City. In the thirty-year history of the 
theater, Woodie King has presented more then 150 productions, both 
Broadway and off-Broadway shows. Among his many awards, Mr. King is the 
recipient of an Obie Award for Sustained Achievement as well as an 
Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Wayne State University and a 
Doctorate of Fine Arts from the College of Wooster. His 1974-75 
production of The Taking of Miss Janie, which he produced, won a Drama 
Critics Circle Award as Best New American Play. Aside from his work at 
the New Federal Theatre, Mr. King has produced and directed shows all 
over the nation, with his work appearing in Atlanta, Detroit, St. 
Louis, Brooklyn, and Bermuda.
  For 30 years, Woodie King Jr.'s New Federal Theatre has provided 
enormously talented imaginative, and creative minorities with the 
chance to present their work in an established and professional 
theatrical venue. Without the opportunity to perform at Woodie King's 
New Federal Theatre, encouraged by Woodie King himself, many of today's 
most successful and promising theater professionals would have perhaps 
never achieved their current successes.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join in acknowledging Woodie King 
and the pioneers of Woodie King's New Federal Theatre on the theater's 
thirtieth anniversary. Woodie King's New Federal Theatre, with a 
stellar record of accomplishment, has truly made an important 
contribution to American Theater.

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