New Heritage Theatre Group


New Heritage Theatre Group is the oldest black nonprofit theater company in New York City, established in 1964. Through its multiple divisions: IMPACT Repertory Theatre, The Roger Furman Reading Series and New Heritage Films, New Heritage gives training, exposure and experience to new and emerging artists, playwrights, directors and technicians of color. New Heritage was founded by the late Roger Furman and is currently headed by Executive Producer Voza Rivers and Executive Artistic Director Jamal Joseph. NHTG presentations capture the historical, social and political experiences of Black and Latino descendants in America and abroad.

Early history

NHTG was established in 1964 as the New Heritage Repertory Theatre by the late Roger Furman, a playwright, director, actor, and lecturer. Furman's career in Harlem began at the American Negro Theater in the 1940s. He began New Heritage Repertory Theater in 1964 as a street theater while employed with HARYOU-ACT, a federally-financed anti-poverty program in Harlem. New Heritage Repertory Theatre, under Furman's leadership, produced over 35 plays including Strivers Row written by Abram Hill, co-founder of the American Negro Theatre. Furman also directed the Three Penny Opera featuring famed actress Geraldine Fitzgerald.
Roger Furman was born on March 22, 1924 in New Jersey and studied theatre arts at the Dramatic Workshop of the New School for Social Research under Erwin Piscator. Furman worked as an apprentice under Rafael Ríos Rey at the National Theatre of Puerto Rico and was a former student at the American Negro Theatre with Sidney Potier, Clarice Taylor, Harry Belafonte, Ruby Dee and Gertrude Jeannette. Furman was the youngest person at the American Negro Theatre commissioned to design a set for Tin Top Valley, starring Fred O'Neil, produced by ANT. Furman's trademark was imaginative headgear and he believed in Harlem as a fertile theatrical seedbed. In addition to his acting and directing chores Furman taught courses on the History of Black Drama at New York University, Rutgers and Hartford University and was a co-founder of the Black Theater Alliance, an organization of performance groups.
His directing chores include Bertolt Brecht's Three Penny Opera, Wine In the Wilderness and Mojo: A Black Love Story by Alice Childress. Furman Wrote and directed the critically acclaimed play The Long Black Block with music by Jackie McClean and co-authored and directed Fat Tuesday with Dee Robinson.
Additional directing work by Furman includes: the award-winning Montezuma's Revenge, Harlem's classic On Strivers Row, A Day of Absent, Hip, Black and Angry, The Gimmick, To Kill a Devil, Man In The Family, Harlem Heyday, Another Shade of Harlem, No Snakes In The Grass, Monseigneur Baptiste The Con Man and Fun in Games.
New Heritage Repertory Theatre was awarded a training program grant from Columbia University School of Theatre to teach young Black and Puerto Ricans the technical aspects of theatre. In 1973, Roger Furman was a recipient of the AUDELCO Board of Directors Awards and was nominated for best director in 1975 for Fat Tuesday. His New Heritage Repertory Theatre was honored by Fibonacci Inc. for its contribution to the rich cultural life of the Harlem community.

New Leadership

In 1983 upon Furman's death, Voza Rivers, a co-founding member of NHTG and award-winning music and theatre producer, took over the company and reorganized under the name New Heritage Theatre Group. Rivers is an accomplished theatre, music, film and events producer and is recognized as one of the country’s leading African American theatre producers. Since 1983, under the leadership of Voza Rivers, NHTG presents entertaining, informative theatrical productions, staged readings and documentary shorts and films, the mission was expanded to provide training, experience and international exposure to veteran and emerging artists.

Divisions

IMPACT Repertory Theatre, the youth division of NHTG, was established in 1997 by Jamal Joseph, a U.S. writer, director, producer, poet, activist, and educator to insure that the legacy of the company lives on. Since its founding IMPACT has featured hundreds of youth between the ages of 12 to 19 with original staged performances in front of live audience totalling over 100,000. New Heritage’s IMPACT Repertory Theatre is a group of youth activists who view the creative arts and leadership training as a way to develop themselves and change the world in a positive way. The mission of the group is to encourage hard work, focus, discipline, unity and the principles of S.O.S. safe space, outstanding effort and service to the community. Members participate in three programs which include Performance Arts, IMPACT Boot Camp where members learn the fundamentals of leadership, service and public speaking and lastly, Community Service Programs.
IMPACT was OSCAR and GRAMMY nominated for their song Raise It Up from the movie August Rush starring Robin Williams. In December 2014, IMPACT performed a 20-minute piece in front of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge alongside youth performers from youth empowerment organizations The Door and City Kids.
The Roger Furman Reading Series works with emerging and established playwrights on early drafts of their scripts with the goal of producing their work in front of a live audience. The series also provides a vehicle for celebrity artists associated with the company to return and perform in Harlem. Highlights of the Roger Furman Reading Series include producing plays for award-winning actors, playwright and author Daniel Beaty and playwright and radio host Esther Armah.
In 2015 Voza Rivers and New Heritage Theatre Group partnered with MIST Harlem to present the staged reading series Bold New Voices, Past, Present and Future. The Bold New Voices series presents and creates stories about people of color. Programs will encompass African American, Asian, Hispanic and the African Diaspora cultural communities featuring music, film, drama, talk-backs, symposiums, play-writing, poetry, fiction workshops and more
New Heritage Films & Harlemwood Film Festival explores issues of the African diaspora through film. Annually, New Heritage Films features documentaries and films in the Harlem community from emerging and established filmmakers though the Harlemwood Film Festival. Productions include Hughes Dream Harlem, Savoy Kings and A-Alike.
A partial listing of films produced by New Heritage Films include the award-winning “Hughes Dream Harlem”, “Sonia Sanchez: Shake Loose Memories” “Percy Sutton: A Man for All Seasons,” ”Da Zone,” Drive By: A Love Story”, “The Black New Yorkers,” “Burning Sands,” The 95th Anniversary of the National Urban League, the 110th Anniversary of The Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce, “Harlem is...Music,” “Harlem is...Theater,” and “Harlem is... Gospel” documentaries.

International Programming

NHTG seeks to bring attention to works by international writers, directors and artists who lack exposure in the United States.

NHTG and Japan Connection

New Heritage Theatre Group has a long-standing historical relationship with Japan. Collaborations have resulted in then-Japanese Crown Prince Akihito's 1987 visit to Harlem and dozens of concerts in Japan and New York featuring Japanese and African American entertainers. New Heritage and its collaborating partners produce benefit concerts, theatrical productions and exhibitions in partnership with the Japan Chamber of Commerce, The Japan Society and The Consulate General of Japan in support of breaking down barriers of cultural misunderstanding. In 2012 New Heritage Theatre Group produced the 100th anniversary of the Sakura Cherry Blossom Festival in Harlem.

NHTG and South African Connection

New Heritage Theatre Groups connection to South African theatre began in 1984 when Rivers and his production team Andre Robinson, Phyllis Yvonne Stickney and his South African producing team Duma Ndlovu and Mbongeni Ngema transferred South African play Woza Albert!, a play that opened at Johannesburg's Market Theater and toured in Europe and America as was the most successful play to come out of South Africa to Harlem's New Heritage Theatre. The successful impact of Striver's Row inspired Rivers to look beyond the African American experience and reach across the world to introduce Harlem to the works of Black South African playwrights and actors which was an opportunity to bring lessons from the South African Apartheid to the Harlem community. NHTG produced a series of plays in the 1980s — including “Woza Albert!,” “Asinamli!” and Sarafina! that educated Harlemites about the apartheid struggle. "Asinimali", a play about celebration of resistance, opened in 1986 at Roger Furman's New Heritage Repertory Theatre just two weeks after an attack by an armed mob, killing the shows local promoter as a reaction to the plays political stance.
In 2014 New Heritage Theatre Group was represented on a panel at the Apollo Theatre along with former Mayor David Dinkins, actor and activist Harry Belafonte, Black Star News publisher Milton Allimadi, National Black Theatre CEO Sade Lythcott, South African Consul General George Monyemangene that was part of a four-day festival that highlighted Harlem's longstanding relationship with South Africa, also celebrating the 20th anniversary of Nelson Mandela's historic inauguration as South Africa's first black president.

Community Partners

• City College Aaron Davis Hall
• Apollo Theatre Foundation
• Columbia University Arts Initiative
• Columbia University School of the Arts
• Community Works
• El Museo Del Barrio
• Frank Silvera's Writers Workshop
• Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce
• Harbor Conservatory for the Performing Arts
• Harlem Arts Alliance
• Harlem Jazz and Music Festival
• Harlem Week
• Museum of the City of New York
• National Black Sports and Entertainment Hall of Fame
• New Federal Theatre
• The National Museum of Catholic Arts
• Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
• Tupac Amaru Shakur Center for The Arts

Production Highlights(partial listing)

This list is a partial listing of productions New Heritage Theatre Group has produced or co-produced in conjunction with one or more of its collaborating partners.

1964-2015 Theatrical Productions