African Company / African Grove Theatre
One of the first theater companies to approach the dramatic performing arts from an African American perspective was The African Grove Theater in New York City.
It was founded by William Henry Brown and James Hewlett, both who had traveled by ship throughout the Caribbean, where story telling, performance, dance and music were essential to the culture and survival of the slaves working on sugar cane and tobacco plantations, salt flats and mines.
The company performed tragedies and comedies from Shakespeare to American playwrights.
Eventually, the need for work that came from within the African American experience proved itself. Two years after it opened, the first play written and p roduced by an African American was presented at the African Grove in 1823. The play, The Drama of King Shotaway, by Brown, played to mixed (though predominately black) audiences that year.
Source: A Brief Overview of the History of African American Theater
