Douglas Turner Ward was a highly influential American playwright, actor, director, and producer. He was born in Louisiana in 1930 and raised in New Orleans. Ward moved to New York City in 1949, where he was initially employed as a journalist. He studied playwriting at the Paul Mann Workshop. He began his Off-Broadway career in 1956 as an actor in Eugene O’Neill’s The Iceman Cometh and in 1959 went on to be cast in a minor role in the Broadway production of A Raisin in the Sun. Guided by a desire to continue the legacy of W. E. B. Du Bois, Ward was determined to create theater that was primarily written by, performed for, and representative of African American people. Ward, Robert Hooks, and Gerald Krone formed the Negro Ensemble Company in 1965. Ward made his playwriting debut that same year with two one acts, Happy Ending and Day of Absence. In 1967, the Negro Ensemble Company officially opened with Ward serving as artistic director, where he continued to act, direct, and write plays. Ward’s involvement with the Negro Ensemble Company continued until his death in February 2021.
