Article on William Brown's African Theater

Originally published in Seawanhaka, September 2008

Last spring, LIU students put on a production of “The African Company Presents Richard III,” the story of William Brown’s African Theater, which is believed by historians to be the first black-owned theater company in the country.

Along with the play, those involved sought to bring Brown’s story into public knowledge. Students and faculty that participated in the production have been working to convince the city to erect a memorial plaque near the location of the African Theater at the corner of Mercer and Bleecker Streets in Greenwich Village. The students had been working to raise money for the plaque with the Performers’ Access Studio, however, they were able to garner enough support to convince the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation to not only place the sign but to fund it as well.

The students managed to influence the Parks Department’s decision through their own correspondence as well as spreading the word to the public to inspire a greater number of people to ask for the sign. Reporter Cheryl Wills interviewed the LIU student actors involved in the production, Flip Washington, Mark Hackett, Whitney McIntosh and Adrian Coleman, for a segment that ran on New York 1.

Quiche Stone, who directed last year’s play, will also be giving a lecture on September 23 about William Brown’s theater. According to Stone, the play, accurate as it was, was still in essence a theatrical work and her lecture will be a historical recount of Brown’s theater and “how it managed to come to be in the time that it did.”

Stone hopes to reveal the date of the plaque’s dedication during her lecture, but at this time the Parks Department has not yet set one. If the date has not yet been determined at the time of the lecture, Stone will ask the audience to “politely light a fire under the Parks Department.” She intends to give out a web address where people can e-mail the Parks Department Commissioner, Adrian Benepe, to thank him for recognizing William Brown and ask him when the sign will be done.

Jonathon Kuhn, Director of Arts and Antiquities for the Parks Department, undertook the task of creating this plaque along with his assistant Scott Sendrow, who wrote the text that will appear on the sign. The wording, which appears as part of a larger sign on the history of the area near Mercer Playground, reads,

“Historians believe that the corner of Mercer and Bleecker Streets, just across the street from Mercer Playground, served as one of the sites of what could be the earliest African-American theatre company, the African Theater, also known as the African Grove. Headed by the West Indian William Henry Brown, the African Grove launched the career of Ira Aldridge, who went on to play the role of Othello at the Royal Theater in London, and gave James Hewlett the opportunity to play Shakespeare’s Richard III for a mixed audience of blacks and whites.”

To contact Parks Department Commissioner Adrian Benepe, visit www.nycgovparks.org and click the “Contact the Commissioner” link at the bottom of the page. Quiche Stone’s lecture will take place at 6:30 pm on Tuesday, September 23 at Judson Memorial Assembly Hall at 239 Thompson St. It is being presented by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. The lecture is free and open to the public. For reservations call 212-475-9585. For more information visit http://www.gvshp.org/events.htm