Woodie King, Jr. to Receive Paul Robeson Award

Woodie King, Jr., founder and producing director of the New Federal Theatre, will receive the Actors’ Equity Foundation’s Paul Robeson award on October 3, 2003 during the Equity membership meeting in New York City. The award will be presented to King by actor Ossie Davis, a former winner.

King, who is also the founder of the National Black Touring Circuit, has presented over 175 productions, among them Appear and Show Cause, A Raisin in the Sun, Boseman and Lena, Checkmates, for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf, Reggae, Robert Johnson: Trick of the Devil, The Taking of Miss Janie, and What the Winesellers Buy. He has directed at a number of regional theaters across the United States and has received an Obie Award for Sustained Excellence, a doctorate of fine arts from the College of Wooster, and an honorary doctorate in humane letters from Wayne State University.

The Paul Robeson Award was established in 1974 to recognize those who best exemplify the principles by which Robeson lived. Previous winners include Gertrude Jeanette, Brock Peters, Rosetta LeNoire, Athol Fugard, George C. Wolfe, Maya Angelou, Joe Papp, Lena Horne, Ed Asner, Harry Belafonte, and Lillian Hellman.