Woodie King, Jr. (1937-2026) - The Godfather of Black Theatre
- Gary Anderson
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
by Guest Contributor - Gary Anderson
Woodie King Jr. (July 27, 1937 – January 29, 2026)
“We die three times. The first time is when we take our last breath. The second is when we are placed in the ground. The third and final time is when our name is no longer spoken by the living.” -- African Proverb
Woodie King, Jr. was a pioneering director, producer, writer, and institution-builder whose work permanently created a safe place of Black artists in American theatre. To me, he was my friend, mentor, and surrogate father.
The day I truly believed I could have a life in the theatre was the day I learned his name. Woodie showed me that you could overcome the economic challenges of growing up with fewer resources. Woodie showed me that a commitment to telling the stories of Black people could be a rewarding and fulfilling mission to devote myself to for a lifetime. Woodie inspired me from the beginning because he championed an unfiltered and uncompromised examination of Black life that built the foundation upon which every Black Theatre creative stands on today.
There is no corner of our field that has not been shaped by his influence.
One of the amazing things about Woodie was that no matter what period of his life it was, he tackled his obstacles fearlessly. The well-worn pathways Black Theatre creatives trod today were first cleared by Woodie and his generation. In 1960 he co-founded Concept-East Theatre in Detroit. As one of the regional Black theatres that came out of the Black Arts Movement, Woodie helped his peers in Detroit discover themselves on stage. One, a young writer who aspired to be the next Richard Wright, was convinced by Woodie to let his manuscript be adapted into a play.
When that young writer, Woodie’s childhood friend Ron Milner, came by the bar where Concept East rehearsed, he discovered the memorizing power of hearing his thoughts interpreted by actors, and watching his characters come to life. From that day on Milner was a man of the theatre thanks to the persistence of his friend.
You have to understand. It didn’t take me long to realize that the reason Woodie was able to make such a difference is because he was from Detroit. Detroit is a place where dreams come alive and where dreamers become indestructible. He had grown up in the segregated Black neighborhoods where Black issues and interests weren’t ignored. They were the material of conversations in the local barbershop, at the corner store, or from the church pulpit. He didn’t need a t-shirt to tell them that Black Lives mattered. He lived every day with that belief burning in his heart.
Woodie had worked on the assembly line in the Ford plant. The first thing you learn in an auto plant is that to produce a functioning car at the end of the line you have to do it by working with others. Putting together a car is just like putting up a show. You only do it well if you’re all in sync. Woodie took those lessons with him to New York. As founder of New Federal Theatre and the National Black Touring Circuit, he built the roads Black artists and other artists of color would take to move from community spaces into the mainstream, while keeping their stories, politics, and aesthetics at the center.
Across six decades, Woodie developed and championed a remarkable list of plays that are now central to American theatre history. Highlights include his early NFT productions of Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow is Enuf, Amiri Baraka’s Slave Ship, Ed Bullins’ The Taking of Miss Janie, and Ron Milner’s What the Wine-Sellers Buy. NFT also collaborated with Joseph Papp’s Public Theater on For Colored Girls…, which went on to a long Broadway run, a Tony nomination for Best Play, and a multi-year national tour, becoming one of the most widely produced works by a Black woman playwright.
As important as the plays he developed, even more so were the artists he nurtured.
NFT’s stage was an early home for performers and writers who are major figures in American culture, including Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman, Samuel L. Jackson, Laurence Fishburne, Debbie Allen, Phylicia Rashad, Chadwick Boseman, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Ntozake Shange, Ed Bullins, David Henry Hwang, Ron Milner, and many more. In fact, the first time Denzel Washington played Malcolm X was in the NFT production of Laurence Holder’s When Chickens Come Home to Roost.
Describing Woodie as “The Godfather of Black Theatre” is an attempt to contain the scope of the impact he had on American theatre, both structurally and spiritually. Structurally, he proved that a Black-led institution could survive for more than fifty years, producing hundreds of plays, and showcasing works and artists without diluting their politics or cultural identity. His commitment to training means that generations of Black actors, writers, and directors entered the field with craft, community, and a sense of ownership. Spiritually, he redefined what American theatre is allowed to look and sound like: from choreopoems and jazz-inflected dramas to searing political allegories, Woodie’s stage insisted that Black life in all its complexity belonged at the center.
There is an African proverb that goes “We die three times. The first time is when we take our last breath. The second is when we are placed in the ground. The third and final time is when our name is no longer spoken by the living.” For all of our sake and for those generations of Black artists yet to come, I pledge to do my part.
Gary Anderson is the Producing Artistic Director of Plowshares Theatre Company, member of the Black Seed National Advisory Committee, and a 2016 Kresge Artist Fellow
