Black Spectrum Theatre Co., Inc.

Mission:

Founded in 1970, Black Spectrum Theatre Company produces and presents theatre, films, and video examining issues of concern to the African-American community. Black Spectrum is the only professional theatre company reaching out to people of African descent in southeastern Queens. We serve the large African-American, Caribbean-American, and Latino populations of Jamaica, Hollis, St. Albans, and Laurelton, and diverse audiences throughout the country.

Black Spectrum’s Professional Theatre Company produces three cutting-edge main-stage productions annually. The Professional Theatre has garnered critical acclaim in dozens of major newspapers and media outlets, including The New York Times, Newsday, ABC TV News, and CBS TV News.

Our Children’s Theatre Company offers an introduction to theatre arts for children ages 8-12. In a nurturing environment, the students receive early professional training and present one production annually designed to prepare students to advance our Youth Theatre Company if they wish.

Our Children’s and Youth Theatre Institute is a 28-week education and training program for children and youth from 7-18. Each year, following the end of the Summer Theatre Camp, we bring in professionals from the theatre world to provide intensive training in acting, music, dance, movement, singing, diction, makeup, lighting and sound. (Instructors have included Geoffrey Owens “Elvin” from the Bill Crosby Show, Kimberly Harris from the Road Company of “The Full Monty”). We offer two classes each week – October through May. This year we have 25 enrolled students, of whom 15 are receiving full scholarships.

An extraordinary number of past participants in the Professional, Youth, and Children’s Companies have gone on to illustrious careers in theatre, television and film. Among the most celebrated are Desiree Coleman of the Youth Theatre Company, who received national recognition for her role in Mama I want to sing; Lisa Nicole Carson who was featured in the Theatres first feature film went on to Star in the TV Hit Show “Ally McBeal”, Byron Mims, formerly of our professional company who went on to the original production of Fences on Broadway; and Debbie Burrell, also of the professional company; and Debbie Burrell, also of the professional company a member of the original cast of Dream Girls. In July 1999, Black Spectrum brought its violence prevention programming to 4,000 young people from at-risk neighborhoods in Atlanta, Georgia. The program was sponsored by the Atlanta Dept. of Parks and Recreation and the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation of Atlanta. The Program received extensive TV coverage and a proclamation by Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell.

Black Spectrum’s films and videos, by and for young people, address critical life issues in the African-American Community. They equip children and teenagers with lifesaving skills to address the problems of teen pregnancy, handgun violence, and AIDS.



We have already completed twelve videos including the brand-new “Urban Encounters: When Young People Get Stopped by Police”, an all –too-timely video offering constructive approaches to calm potentially dangerous confrontations with law officers.

Our videos is part of a comprehensive education program that also includes teaching materials and a series of screening-forums that are presented in schools, youth centers, and other community settings. Urban Encounters has already been used by the public school systems of Newark, Chicago, New York, Baltimore, and Kansas City, and more than 50 individual high schools and youth programs around the country. It has been broadcast by New York’s WNBC-TV