Ward, Douglas Turner, 1930-2021

Variant names

Hide Profile

Negro Ensemble Company co-founder, actor, director, and playwright Douglas Turner Ward was born Roosevelt Ward, Jr. on May 5, 1930, in Burnside, Louisiana. Ward was a descendant of General Nathan Bedford Forrest, founder of the Ku Klux Klan; his great, great, great-grandmother, Elnora, owned as a slave by Forrest, bore a child with him. Ward's parents, Roosevelt Ward and Dorothy Short Ward were field hands, but they owned their own tailoring business. Raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, and attending Xavier Prep High School, Ward graduated in 1946 at the age of sixteen. Ward entered Wilberforce University in 1946, where he performed in two plays,Thunder RockandA Shot In The Dark, and discovered his ambition to be a sportswriter. When Wilberforce began to lose its accreditation in 1948, Ward transferred to the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, where he played football in his freshman year; he would later quit the football team. In 1949, Ward decided that he wanted to leave college altogether; at the age of nineteen, he went to New York City.

In New York Ward became politically involved and worked as a journalist. Ward eventually decided to become a playwright and studied at the Paul Mann Workshop in New York City. In 1956, Ward began his off-Broadway career as an actor in Eugene O'Neill'sThe Iceman Cometh; he went on to perform and understudy for a part inA Raisin In The Sun. In 1965, Ward, Robert Hooks, and Gerald Krone formed the Negro Ensemble Company; he made his playwriting debut that same year with the oft producedHappy Ending/Day of Absence. In 1967, the Negro Ensemble Company was officially opened with Ward serving as artistic director; some of the its notable productions includeA Soldier's PlayandThe River Niger, which became the company's first play to go to Broadway.The River Nigereventually won a Tony Award for Best Play. Ward went on to write other plays, includingThe ReckoningandBrotherhood.

As a result of Ward and his colleagues' hard work, the Negro Ensemble Company went on to produce more than two hundred plays, and to become a place for Black actors to gain experience and prominence in the theatre. Some notable actors who have worked with the Negro Ensemble Company include Louis Gossett, Jr., Phylicia Rashad, and Sherman Hemsley.

Douglas Turner Ward was interviewed by theHistoryMakerson April 28, 2010.

From The HistoryMakers™ biography: https://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/A2005.135

Archival Resources
Role Title Holding Repository
referencedIn Inventory to the Records of the Conference on Literature and Urban Experience (CLUE), Rutgers University Newark, April 17-19, 1980, 1978-1983 Rutgers Special Collections and University Archives
creatorOf Ward, Douglas Turner. The reckoning; a surreal Southern fable. New York Public Library System, NYPL
creatorOf Weiss, Peter, 1916-1982. Song of the Lusitanian bogey : a play with music in two acts, [1970?] / by Peter Weiss ; translation by Lee Baxandall. Ohio State University Libraries
referencedIn Larry Neal papers, 1961-1985. New York State Historical Documents Inventory
referencedIn Larry Neal papers, 1961-1985 Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Archives Section
referencedIn Negro Ensemble Company records, 1967-1993 Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Archives Section
creatorOf Douglas Turner Ward Papers (MS Thr 2176). Houghton Library, Harvard University. Houghton Library
Role Title Holding Repository
creatorOf The HistoryMakers Video Oral History with Douglas Turner Ward The HistoryMakers
Relation Name
associatedWith Neal, Larry, 1937- person
associatedWith Neal, Larry, 1937-1981. person
associatedWith Negro Ensemble Company. corporateBody
associatedWith The Conference on Literature and Urban Experience (CLUE), Rutgers University Newark corporateBody
associatedWith Weiss, Peter, 1916-1982. person
Place Name Admin Code Country
Burnside (La.)
New York (N.Y.)
New York (N.Y.)
Subject
American drama
Drama
Drama
Negro in literature
Occupation
Playwright
Stage Actor
Stage Director
Activity

Person

Birth 1930-05-05

Death 2021-02-20

Birth 19300505

English

Information

Permalink: http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w69h6cxq

Ark ID: w69h6cxq

SNAC ID: 87403098