Douglas Turner Ward

And so, the next community theater production that I was involved in was at the Back Alley Theater, which is long gone.

But I had an opportunity to do the historic classical play written by Douglas Turner Ward called A Day of Absence.

And believe it or not, I played the role of John.

And Murray, believe it or not, the lady that played Murray with me is right here in the audience, Miss Joy Hooks.

Of course, I wasn't thinking about writing avant-garde plays with seven-foot marionettes at that time, but that was such an honor for me to be a part of the season of the Negro Ensemble Company because I had admired their work so much and I was really intimidated when I got there.

I mean, Douglas Turner Ward was the artistic director and he was a powerhouse and just a very Just an interesting, brilliant person, but also very opinionated.

Had no patience for anybody who wasn't on it and doing it the way he thought you should do it.

I had a wonderful director who worked with me, and that was really good.