M Ensemble Company

Last updated

The M Ensemble Company is the oldest operating African American theatre company in Florida and has been serving the Miami-Dade County community for more than 45 years. The company has tackled an eclectic mix of theatre performances including musicals and contemporary, classical and original plays. M Ensemble also consistently facilitates theater workshops for children and adults and presentations for Kwanzaa and Black Music Month. [1]

Contents

The M Ensemble was established by T.G. Cooper in 1971, but has been led by co-founders Shirley Richardson & Pat Williams for almost the entirety of its existence. In its first 35 years, M Ensemble produced over 150 plays. [2] The company has been classified as an emerging Major Cultural Institution by the Miami-Dade Cultural Affairs Council. [3]

Mission statement

According to M Ensemble's website, the company's mission has always been "to promote African-American culture and experiences through the performing arts." [4]

History

M Ensemble was established at the University of Miami by T.G. Cooper. Cooper established a business model approach to running the theatre company, a legacy that has had a significant impact on the company's longevity. Within the year, the founder relocated to Washington D.C. where he became the chair of the Howard University Department of Theatre Arts. Volunteers Patricia Williams and Shirley Richardson began running M Ensemble in 1972. For many years, the company did not have a permanent building to use for rehearsals and performances. Instead, they used temporary spaces in various locations in North Miami, Wynwood, Overtown, South Dade and Liberty City. [5]

M Ensemble is funded through Miami-Dade County Cultural Affairs, Funding Arts Network, State of Florida Arts Council, Knight Foundation, and the Miami Salon Group, as well as loyal patrons who have donated money and volunteer hours. [5]

As a team, Williams and Richardson have dedicated their lives to M Ensemble's success, "choosing plays, building scenery, loaning props from their own homes & supporting their passions by taking second jobs. Over the years, they have raised money with everything from bake sales to grants from Florida Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts." Even though recent annual budgets have been "between $250,000 and $300,000," the M Ensemble suffered fiscal setbacks from 2010 to 2012 with about $30,000 in debt according to IRS filings from those years. [6]

In October 2016, M Ensemble celebrated the opening of their permanent location at The Sandrell Rivers Black Box Theater. According to Williams and Richardson, “as a residential company in a new permanent space MEC is expected to thrive in years to come as we continue to entertain and educate. Perhaps those who have never seen an M Ensemble Company production will be inspired to attend and may leave wanting more!” [5]

Founders

Theodore G. Cooper, deceased at the age of 57, was a producer, director, educator, writer, actor and with his former wife, Grace C. Cooper, founder of The M Ensemble Company. He preferred to be called “T.G.” and was a professor of Drama at Howard University for twenty years and the chair of the department. [4] Fellow professor of theater arts and close friend, Henri Edmonds, described him as, "Mr. Black Theater...He was just a ball of energy, always with so many ideas about how to perpetuate black theater." Cooper had started theater companies in Miami & Annapolis in addition to writing novels, plays, and even a college textbook on theater. Before his passing, "he had preached the importance of African Americans gaining control on the business side of theater in America, because that was the only way to guarantee that plays by young black playwrights would be produced. Toward that end, he designed and taught courses in theater administration." [7]

Patricia E. Williams is the co-founder, associate producer, general manager, & occasional stage manager of M Ensemble. Williams is an active member of the Screen Actors Guild and Actor's Equity. [4] Williams holds full-time positions in addition to leading M Ensemble, include being director of the after school program at The YWCA of Greater Miami. [2] [4] According to her bio on the M Ensemble website, "her appearances include the M Ensemble productions; Black Spirit Ritual, Hansel and Gretel, and El Hall Malik Shabazz." She worked with off-Broadway and regional theaters while she was in New York & New Jersey. Williams holds a bachelor's degree in theater and journalism from Northwestern University. [4]

Shirley Richardson is the co-founder and executive director of M Ensemble. Richardson has also directed and performed in many of the company's productions. Like Williams, she another job outside of M Ensemble as the Program Director at the Concept Health Systems Outpatient Treatment Center. Her degrees include a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Miami and a master's degree in Mental Health Counseling from Nova Southeastern University. [4] [2] Richardson first became interested in theater at the age of 16 while watching Liza Minnelli perform in “The Fantasticks” at the Coconut Grove Playhouse, where she regularly helped her mother clean up after white audiences left performances. [5]

Past Productions

M Ensemble has always had an "eclectic bill of fare that has included “funky” musicals like Fats Waller’s Ain't Misbehavin' (musical), dramas with a comedic edge, such as Lonnie Elder III’s Ceremonies in Dark Old Men; and gospel songfests, like Langston Hughes’s Tambourines to Glory or Lanie Robertson’s biographical cabaret treatment of Billie Holiday’s last days in Last Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill." [2]

Other notable past productions include:

Accomplishments & Awards

Company Accomplishments

One year after M Ensemble's establishment, M Ensemble represented the Southern region of the United States at the World Festival for Black Arts in Lagos, Nigeria in 1972. [2]

The company also performed Jackie Moms Mabley, Live in the National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem NC in 1995 & 1997. According to the M Ensemble website, this performance "received rave reviews from the Winston-Salem Press and national exposure in the New York Times and Jet Magazine. [4] [2]

Awards

M Ensemble has received positive critical reception and awards throughout its history, including Bill Hirschman’s 2016 review for the presentation of Fences by August Wilson and was a 2016 Knight Arts Challenge grant finalist. [5]

2015 George Abbot Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts presented to Shirley Richardson and Patricia E. Williams.

2008 Silver Palm Award for M Ensemble's Outstanding Ensemble of Actors of From the Mississippi Delta. [9]

Community Outreach

M Ensemble collaborates with the YWCA of Greater Miami to conduct theater workshops and provides training in technical theater as well as a theater workshop to the North Miami Senior High Drama Club. [5]

The following are community outreach initiatives that M Ensemble has engaged in since its inception:

M’Ensemble’s Children’s Theatre

According to the M Ensemble website, "Ensemble’s Children’s Theatre offers children and youth the unique opportunity to experience drama. It provides them with an alternative to sports and encourages their artistic and creative abilities. It’s also a wonderful positive outlet that helps many children overcome shyness and become more secure...Any student 4- 16 can participate as long as they have a keen interest in the arts, creativity, and a desire to have fun."

Creative activities at the Children's Theatre include:

The website promises that these "fun-filled artistic activities" will help children develop:

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nilo Cruz</span> Cuban-American playwright and pedagogue

Nilo Cruz is a Cuban-American playwright and pedagogue. With his award of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Anna in the Tropics, he became the second Latino so honored, after Nicholas Dante.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Judyann Elder</span> American actress

Judyann Elder is an American actress, director, and writer. Elder played Nadine Waters on the FOX sitcom Martin. She also played Harriette Winslow on CBS Family Matters for the remaining eight episodes of its ninth and final season after the departure of Jo Marie Payton. Elder is also a veteran of the stage who has appeared in scores of theatrical productions throughout the United States and Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New World School of the Arts</span> Public magnet, college in Downtown, Miami, Florida, United States

The New World School of the Arts (NWSA) is a public magnet high school and college in Downtown Miami, Florida. Its dual-enrollment programs in the visual and performing arts are organized into four strands: visual arts, dance, theatre, and music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Hooks</span> American actor (born 1937)

Robert Hooks is an American actor, producer, and activist. Along with Douglas Turner Ward and Gerald S. Krone, he founded The Negro Ensemble Company. The Negro Ensemble Company is credited with the launch of the careers of many major black artists of all disciplines, while creating a body of performance literature over the last thirty years, providing the backbone of African-American theatrical classics. Additionally, Hooks is the sole founder of two significant black theatre companies: the D.C. Black Repertory Company, and New York's Group Theatre Workshop.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vinnette Justine Carroll</span> American actress and playwright (1922–2002)

Vinnette Justine Carroll was an American playwright, actress, and theatre director. She was the first African-American woman to direct on Broadway, with her 1972 production of the musical Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope. Until Liesl Tommy's 2016 nomination for Eclipsed, Carroll was the only African-American woman to have received a Tony Award nomination for direction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">L. Scott Caldwell</span> American actress

L. Scott Caldwell is an American actress perhaps best known for her roles as Deputy U.S. Marshall Erin Poole in The Fugitive (1993) and Rose on the television series Lost.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coconut Grove Playhouse</span> Theatre in Miami, Florida, United States

The Coconut Grove Playhouse was a theatre in the Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami, Florida, United States. The building was originally constructed as a movie theater called the Player's State Theater. It opened on January 3, 1927, as a part of the Paramount chain. The movie house was designed by the architect Richard Kiehnel of Kiehnel and Elliott. It was built by local realtors Irving J. Thomas and Fin L. Pierce. Albert Peacock was the contractor.

The Negro Ensemble Company (NEC) is a New York City-based theater company and workshop established in 1967 by playwright Douglas Turner Ward, producer-actor Robert Hooks, and theater manager Gerald S. Krone, with funding from the Ford Foundation. The company's focus on original works with themes based in the black experience with an international perspective created a canon of theatrical works and an audience for writers who came later, such as August Wilson, Suzan-Lori Parks, and others.

Robey Theatre Company is a Los Angeles-based non-profit theatre company.

Enda Walsh is an Irish playwright.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tarell Alvin McCraney</span> American actor and playwright

Tarell Alvin McCraney is an American playwright, screenwriter, and actor. He is the chair of playwriting at the Yale School of Drama and a member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Ensemble.

Samm-Art Williams is an American playwright and screenwriter, and a stage and film/TV actor and television producer. Much of his work concerns the African-American experience.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Teo Castellanos</span>

Teo Castellanos is the founder and Artistic Director of D-Projects, a contemporary Dance/Theater company. D-Projects original work fuses world culture, religion and music, examining social issues through performance. D-Projects has toured South America and China and in 2011 toured in the U.S. with Scratch & Burn, a peace ritual, based on the war and funeral rituals of the Zulu tribe of South Africa using elements of Butoh, Maori war dance, Tibetan Buddhism, Yoruba chants and hip-hop vocabulary.

Aurin Squire is an African-American playwright, screenwriter, and reporter. He has written numerous plays, while his reporting has appeared in The New Republic, Talking Points Memo, Chicago Tribune, Miami Herald, and ESPN, among other outlets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Penumbra Theatre Company</span> African-American theatre company in Saint Paul, Minnesota

The Penumbra Theatre Company, an African-American theatre company in Saint Paul, Minnesota, was founded by Lou Bellamy in 1976. The theater has been recognized for its artistic quality and its role in launching the careers of playwrights including two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner August Wilson.

Black Theater Workshop (BTW) is a non-profit theater company headquartered in Montreal. It is one of the most enduring Black English-speaking professional theater companies in Canada. It was founded by Clarence Bayne and Arthur Goddard, who were also instrumental in establishing the Trinidad and Tobago association. Over the years, the Black Theater Workshop has been renowned for its collaboration with numerous accomplished artistic directors.

Michel Hausmann is a Venezuelan-born theater director, writer, and producer. He is the co-founder and artistic director of Miami New Drama, the resident theater company and operator of the Colony Theatre in Miami Beach. Under Hausmann's leadership, the company has produced over a dozen productions - nine of them world premieres. Michel Hausmann also started Miami New Drama's educational program, which serves more than 8,000 students annually and provides online programming for people across the United States and internationally - offering master classes on a variety of different theater topics such as acting, playwriting, directing, and theater management.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shirley Lauro</span> American writer

Shirley Shapiro Mezvinsky Lauro is an American playwright, screenwriter, and novelist. Her plays include A Piece of my Heart, Open Admissions, The Radiant, All Through the Night and others. Her novel is The Edge and she edited an anthology, Political Plays by American Women, with Alexis Greene.

Miami New Drama is a nonprofit professional theater company located in Miami Beach, Florida, founded in 2014. Since October 2016 it has been the resident theater company and operator of the historic Colony Theatre on Miami Beach. Since its first production in January 2016, the company has produced work by American, Latin American, and international theater artists.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "The M Ensemble". themensemble.com. Retrieved 2017-04-29.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Hill, Anthony; Barnett, Douglas (2009). The A to Z of African American Theater. Scarecrow Press. p. 312. ISBN   978-0810870611.
  3. ↑ "The M Ensemble Theatre Company @ The Lyric Theater Cultural Arts Complex". Cultural Connection. April 29, 2017. Retrieved April 29, 2017.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "The M Ensemble » About Us". themensemble.com. Retrieved 2017-04-29.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Fields, Dorothy Jenkins (October 20, 2016). "M Ensemble theater finds a permanent home in Liberty City". Miami Herald. Retrieved April 29, 2017.
  6. ↑ Hirschman, Bill (January 28, 2014). "M Ensemble Resurfaces At South Miami Dade Cultural Arts Center In Cutler Bay". Florida Theater On Stage. Retrieved April 27, 2017.
  7. ↑ Montgomery, David; Melillo, Wendy (September 26, 1996). "Murder-Suicide: Family's Troubles Took a Tragic Turn". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 27, 2017.
  8. ↑ Hill, Anthony; Barnett, Douglas (2009). The A to Z of African American Theater. Scarecrow Press. p. 340. ISBN   978-0810868984.
  9. 1 2 Joseph, Chris (2012-03-15). "M Ensemble's Harlem Duet tackles racial politics". Miami New Times. Retrieved 2017-05-02.
  10. ↑ Dolen, Christine (June 13, 2016). "Heading for disaster one mistake at a time". Miami Herald. Retrieved April 27, 2017.
  11. ↑ "The George Abbott Award". The Carbonell Awards. Retrieved April 27, 2017.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.