Roger Furman (March 22, 1924 – November 27, 1983) was an African American actor, director, playwright, and producer. He is known for founding the New Heritage Repertory Theater, the oldest active theater company in Harlem, New York City, and taught drama at several universities.
Early life
editCareer
editFurman's career began in Harlem in the 1940s, when he worked as an actor with the American Negro Theater.[3] In 1964, Furman founded the New Heritage Repertory Theater with HARYOU-Act.[3][4]
He was also a founder of the Black Theatre Alliance, which was an organization of theatre groups.[3]
Some of his plays were staged at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.[5][6]
He worked in various roles on movies, including set designer for The Cool World (1963), actor in Maya Angelou's Georgia, Georgia (1972), casting assistant for Come Back, Charleston Blue (1972), and assistant director (to Ossie Davis) in Cotton Comes to Harlem.[3]
In 1972, Furman directed the WPA Theater Company's production of The Threepenny Opera, starring Geraldine Fitzgerald.[3]
He taught courses of black drama at New York University, Rutgers, and Hartford University.[3]
Publications
editFurman co-edited The Black Book, a "self-described “scrapbook” of African American history," first published in 1974 and since published in several further editions, which was nominated for the 1975 National Book Award in the Contemporary Affairs category.[7][8]
Death and legacy
editFurman died on November 27, 1983, at his home in Upper Manhattan, aged 59.[3]
The Roger Furman Theatre (at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture) is named for him.[9]
References
edit- ↑ "Roger Furman Biography". IMDb.
- ↑ Rivers, Voza (January 1, 2006). Forever Harlem: Celebrating America's Most Diverse Community. Sports Publishing LLC. p. 261. ISBN 9781596702066 – via Google Books.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "In Harlem theater 4 decades". The New York Times. December 1, 1983.
- ↑ Samuel, Brittani (Fall 2023). "A Harlem Renaissance". American Theatre: 1–6."New Heritage was founded in 1964 by the late actor, playwright, and director Roger Furman, a member of the reputable American Negro Theater (ANT), with the mission to sustain and preserve classic Black works. New Heritage was to be a safe haven for artists at a time of extreme political strife."
- ↑ Miller, Hillary (October 15, 2016). Drop Dead: Performance in Crisis, 1970s New York. Northwestern University Press. ISBN 9780810133907 – via Google Books.
- ↑ Gussow, Mel (November 17, 1973). "Theater: Black Portrait". The New York Times.
- ↑ Wall, Cheryl A. (December 2012). "Reading The Black Book : Between the Lines of History". Arizona Quarterly: A Journal of American Literature, Culture, and Theory. 68 (4): 105–130. doi:10.1353/arq.2012.0028.
- ↑ "The Black Book: 35th Anniversary Edition by Middleton A. Harris". Publishers Weekly. September 21, 2009. Retrieved June 23, 2026.
- ↑ Heyliger, Yvette (October 25, 2016). Autobiography of a Homegirl: Deep Somewhere in the Toy Box where All My Dolls are Kept. iUniverse. ISBN 9780595205561 – via Google Books.
Further reading
edit- "Black World/Negro Digest". Johnson Publishing Company. April 1975.