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Our History

The story of the creation and development of the Black Theatre Network (BTN) can hardly be told with full accuracy by any one individual.

BTN is an organization where the labor of many has come together to form the whole, where individual contributions are too numerous to fully recount. We stand on the shoulders of the many selfless artists & academics who have made BTN what it is today.

The Origins Of The Black Theatre Network

The Seeds…

The seeds of BTN were planted by the African American educators of the National Association of Dramatic and Speech Arts (NADSA).

These educators joined the American Theatre Association (ATA) when it became more receptive to people of color. In 1965, the Afro-Asian Theatre Project was founded under the ATA. Subsequently, the group within the Project interested in Black Theatre formed the African Theatre Project, which ultimately became the Black Theatre Program (BTP). It was 1985, at the ATA meeting in Toronto, Canada, that talk of ATA’s structural problems became a concern for members of the BTP.

In 1986, the inevitable happened: ATA folded. A group of Black Theatre devotees met in New York City at the National Education Theatre Conference (NETC), to bemoan ATA’s demise and to excitedly debate the future of the defunct BTP. Against the backdrop of the lobby bar of the Milford Hotel, these pioneers pondered the feasibility of creating a new Black theatre organization. This new organization would rise like the Phoenix to provide a service to those facing displacement while securing a haven for future artists and scholars.

A New Era

As strategy sessions moved to New York University, the group faced its first major decision: to follow the safe path by joining forces with the newly created Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE), or to tread on what was perceived as uncharted territory and build a separate nationalistic organization. During the 1986 meeting, as the hours passed and the debate raged on, the revolutionaries were determined to strike out on their own, and after much fiery wrangling, the decision was made to form the “Black Theatre Network.” Those who brought this vision to life were: Addell Austin-Anderson, George Bass, Buddy Butler, Don Evans, Kathryn Ervin, Winona Fletcher, Coleman Freeman, Floyd Gaffney, Errol Hill, Woodie King, Jr., Bill Lewis, J.W. Lewis, Vernell Lillie, Barbara Molette, Carlton Molette, Louis Rivers, Freda Scott-Giles, Archie Simpson, Marvin Sims, Lundeana Thomas, Barbara Votja, Rhonnie Washington, Von Washington, Ethel Pitts-Walker, Phillip Walker, and Allen Williams.

A communal position paper was drafted and adopted, officers were elected, and the Black Theatre Network came to light. The first officers were Ethel Pitts-Walker (President), Rhonnie Washington (Vice President), Addell Austin-Anderson (Secretary), William Lewis (Treasurer), Von H. Washington (Newsletter Editor), Marvin Sims (Program Chair/ Conference Planner), and an Advisory Board that included Winona Fletcher, Errol Hill, Vernell Lillie and Margaret Wilkerson.

To hear Dr. Ethel Pitts-Walker tell the tale of the founding of BTN, listen to her episode on the black theatre history podcast here.

BTN Past Presidents

Ethel Pitts-Walker
1986-1988

Rhonnie Washington
1988 - 1990

Addell Anderson
1990-1992

Kathryn Ervin
1992-1994

Lundeana Thomas
1994-1996

Mikell Pinkney
1996 - 1998

Lorna Littleway
1998 - 1999

Eileen Morris
1999 - 2002

Marvin Sims
2002 - 2003

Gregory Horton
2003-2006

Sandra Shannon
2006 - 2008

Luther Wells
2008-2010*

Artisia Green
2011 - 2012*

Michael Dinwiddie
2012 - 2014

k.b. saine
2014-2016

John Foster
2016-2018

Andre Harrington
2018 - 2020

Chris Berry
2020-2021

K. Zaheerah Sultan
2021-2024

*Luther Wells served as Acting President 2010 – 2011; Artisia Green served as President Elect 2010 – 2011.

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