On Tuesday, October 24, 2017, the day of the premiere of Juney Smith’s film The Woodie King Jr. Story, Michael Dennis recorded my interview with Woodie King, Jr. about his 45 years of producing stage performances at New Federal Theatre which included Black Girl by J.e. Franklin, for colored girls who’ve considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf by Ntozake Shange, and countless more productions, some of which are detailed below.
Photo of productions of New Federal Theatre 
Photo 2 of productions of New Federal Theatre.
There were three life changing productions by Woodie King Jr.’s New Federal Theatre (NFT). The first was the 1974 production that was revived by directors Jamila Capitman and Heather Thomas that I helped to stage manage in 2007. The second was a 2010 reading that the NFT produced of Pearl Cleage’s play Flyin’ West starring Kim Brockington, Stephanie Berry, Bianca Lavern Jones, and Ms. Ruby Dee, narrated by T. Renee Mathis. The third life changing production was NFT’s 2010 production of Charles Smith’s play Knock Me A Kiss starring Tony winner Andre De Shields as W.E.B. Du Bois and Erin Cherry as Yolande Du Bois. This production was life-changing because that was the first and last “standing room only” production I attended where I saw and witnessed and felt THE COMMERCIAL POWER of Black theater. The audience was hypnotized by the POWER of Chuck Smith’s direction. It was a great thing to witness. Thank you Woodie King, Jr. for producing life-changing theater.
