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The American Negro Theater (ANT) was formed in Harlem
Harlem

Harlem is a Neighbourhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, long known as a major African-American residential, cultural, and business center....
 on June 5, 1940 by writer Abram Hill and actor Frederick O'Neal
Frederick O'Neal

Frederick O'Neal was an United States actor, theater producer and television director. He founded the American Negro Theater and was the first African-American president of the Actors' Equity Association....
. It produced 19 plays before closing in 1949. Designed as a community theater group, performances were held in Harlem's Schomburg Library. In 1942, ANT began its Studio Theatre training program for beginning actors. Graduates include Sidney Poitier
Sidney Poitier

Sir Sidney Poitier, Order of the British Empire is an Academy Award-, Golden Globe-, BAFTA- and Grammy award-winning Bahamas-United States actor, film director, author, and diplomat....
 and Harry Belafonte
Harry Belafonte

Harold George Belafonte, Jr. is a Jamaican American musician, actor and social activist. One of the most successful popular singers in history, he was dubbed the "King of Calypso music" a title which he was very reluctant to accept for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s....
.

Its most successful production, Anna Lucasta, fundamentally transformed the ANT.






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The American Negro Theater (ANT) was formed in Harlem
Harlem

Harlem is a Neighbourhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, long known as a major African-American residential, cultural, and business center....
 on June 5, 1940 by writer Abram Hill and actor Frederick O'Neal
Frederick O'Neal

Frederick O'Neal was an United States actor, theater producer and television director. He founded the American Negro Theater and was the first African-American president of the Actors' Equity Association....
. It produced 19 plays before closing in 1949. Designed as a community theater group, performances were held in Harlem's Schomburg Library. In 1942, ANT began its Studio Theatre training program for beginning actors. Graduates include Sidney Poitier
Sidney Poitier

Sir Sidney Poitier, Order of the British Empire is an Academy Award-, Golden Globe-, BAFTA- and Grammy award-winning Bahamas-United States actor, film director, author, and diplomat....
 and Harry Belafonte
Harry Belafonte

Harold George Belafonte, Jr. is a Jamaican American musician, actor and social activist. One of the most successful popular singers in history, he was dubbed the "King of Calypso music" a title which he was very reluctant to accept for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s....
.

Its most successful production, Anna Lucasta, fundamentally transformed the ANT. A white author, Phillip Yordan, wrote the play about a Polish family, but could not find a company to perform it. So he rewrote it to feature a black family. It was performed by the ANT in 1944. Five weeks later the play opened on Broadway
Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 39 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located in the Theatre District, New York in Manhattan, New York City....
. The ANT received few royalties and the next three ANT plays to appear on Broadway were not successful. Despite this, following the success of Anna Lucasta the ANT became less community-centered. From then on, the ANT only featured plays from established white playwrights, and young actors viewed the ANT as a means to break into Broadway productions.