Our history

New Federal Theatre (NFT), founded by Woodie King, Jr. in 1970 as an outgrowth of a theatre program called Mobilization for Youth, was originally funded by the Henry Street Settlement, alongside a small grant from the New York State Council on the Arts. The theatre's inaugural season was launched in the basement of St. Augustine's Church on Henry Street.

Several early successes catapulted NFT to national prominence: J.e. Franklin's "Black Girl" garnered a Drama Desk Award, Ed Bullins' "The Taking of Miss Janie" moved from NFT to Lincoln Center and secured the Drama Critics Circle Award, while Ntozake Shange's "For Colored Girls Who Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf" ran on Broadway for 10 months, receiving a Tony Award nomination before embarking on a three-year national tour. It has since been performed regionally and globally and was revived off-Broadway in 2019. Both plays were co-produced with the late Joseph Papp.

Numerous performers, including the late Chadwick Boseman, Debbie Allen, Morgan Freeman, Phylicia Rashad, Denzel Washington, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Samuel L. Jackson, Issa Rae, and many more, benefited from their early successes on NFT's stage.

NFT has maintained a focus on the production of new works, often by young playwrights. Many plays that had their premieres at NFT have contributed to the reputations of playwrights who later achieved greater success in their careers. For instance, Charles Fuller premiered two plays at NFT, "In My Many Names and Days" and "The Candidate." He later received the Pulitzer Prize for "A Soldier's Play," and David Henry Hwang, who premiered "The Dance And The Railroad" at NFT, went on to win the Drama Desk Award for "M. Butterfly."