Penn Live Arts Hosts The Negro Ensemble Company in Residence
- Penn Live Arts
- Penn Live Arts, School of Arts & Sciences
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Artist Residency Grant
Extended Artist Engagement Grant
Photo credit: Jonathan Slaff
Penn Live Arts will host Obie Award-winning Negro Ensemble Company (NEC) in residence, bringing together one of the most important Black theatre producers in the United States and the University of Pennsylvania’s nexus of the performing arts, two legacy organizations that share a mission of advancing innovative, contemporary theatre. The residency, NEC’s first with a major institution, will span the 2022-23 season/academic year and encompass a one-act play festival in the fall and the world premiere of a new multidisciplinary theatre work in the spring. Additionally, the residency will include collaborative community activities with NEC artists and Penn students and faculty, notably Penn Professor of English and Africana Studies Herman Beavers, who teaches (with Professor Suzana Berger) the arts-based community service course entitled, “August Wilson and Beyond,” in which Penn students read the groundbreaking playwright’s American Century Cycle, a collection of ten plays that form an iconic picture of African American traditions, traumas, and triumphs through the decades. The goal of the yearlong residency is to reflect authentic, underrepresented stories of the Black experience and elevate meaningful and thought-provoking conversations on the monumental role of Black artists in shaping art and culture in our country.