Douglas turner ward biography

Playwright, actor, director, producer

Rose from Humble Beginnings

Made Reputation as a Playwright

Creation of the NEC

Selected writings

Sources

As the writer, director, and star of plays that examine the situation of black Americans in the mid-twentieth century—and as co-founder and director of the seminal Negro Ensemble Company of New York—Douglas Turner Ward has been instrumental in setting the direction of modern black theater.

“Ward,” stated Dictionary of Literary Biography contributor Stephen M. Vallillo, “was one of the first writers to approach theater from a modern black perspective using humor. Comic, not militant or angry, his plays tend to be extended jokes, ironic situations that he develops into short dramatic pieces.

Underneath the humor, however, is a biting satire that examines the relations and interdependence between blacks and whites.” The playwright’s “work, and that of