Gerald Krone News Today

Douglas Turner Ward: A Lens on ‘Questions That the Country Wasn’t Asking’ Samuel L. Jackson, David Alan Grier, Phylicia Rashad and others remember the Negro Ensemble Company founder. Douglas Turner Ward waiting to go onstage after the opening night performance of “A Soldier’s Play” in January 2020. Kenny Leon, who led the production, called Ward’s presence and smile up there that night “the greatest experience for me as an American director.”Credit...Sara Krulwich/The...

Douglas Turner Ward He won a Tony Award while also directing and starring in The River Niger in the 70s. Douglas Turner Ward, a Tony-winning playwright, director and actor who co-founded New Yorks trailblazing Negro Ensemble Company, has died. He was 90. Ward, inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame in 1996, died Saturday at his home in Manhattan, his wife, Diana Ward, told Energized by the success of Lorraine Hansberrys A Raisin in the Sun and with help from a Ford Foundation grant, Ward, act...