IMAN, YUSEF. A playwright, poet, and actor, Iman was born in Savannah, GA. He grew up in the South, where he became actively involved in both the civil rights movement and the arts. After moving to Newark, NJ, he joined a radical theater group, Spirit House Theatre, headed by Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones). There he was inspired to put the pen to the page in response to the social upheaval of the times. One of his more popular early plays is Praise the Lord, but Pass the Ammunition (1967), a one-act that deals with ideological differences between the forces of self-defense and nonviolence. Praise was first produced by Spirit House in Newark (1967). After Spirit House closed, Iman continued to write and perform at Roger Furman’s New Heritage Repertory Theatre Company in New York City. Later Iman founded the Weusi Kuumba Theatre Troupe in Brooklyn, where he directed most of the plays. Among his other acting credits, Iman portrayed Malcolm X opposite Morgan Freeman in the 1981 film The Death of the Prophet. For over two decades, he wrote more than 20 plays. Among them are Dope: The Cause and the Cure (1967); Jihad (1968); Resurrection (1969); Confusion (1970); The Verdict Is Yours (1971); The Price of Revolution (1971); We Wear the Mask (1973); and Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow (1971), coauthored with Ben Caldwell. Iman is also a published poet.
IMPACT REPERTORY THEATRE. Based in New York City, Impact Repertory Theatre was founded in 1964 by the late Roger Furman. It is a branch of the New Heritage Repertory Theatre Company, one of the oldest black theaters in the country. In 1997, Voza Rivers and Jamal Joseph, artistic director and executive producer, respectively, of New Heritage, committed to establishing an arts training component for young people. Thus was born Impact, an intensive training laboratory open to young people between the ages of 12 and 18. New members undergo six weeks of studying the rudiments of history, leadership and teamwork, communication skills, hygiene, and current youth issues. They are also exposed to the basic vocabulary of drama, music, dance, and self-assessment in order to track their progress on the next level, which includes dance (modern jazz, traditional African, hip hop, and ballet); movement (martial arts, stage combat, pantomime, stepping); music; voice; composition; keyboards; musical theater; drama (scene study, improvisation, monologues, audition and performance techniques); writing (poetry, short stories, plays, movie scripts); and leadership (public speaking, career planning, time management, community organizing). New Impact members are required to attend a 12-week boot camp of intensive arts and leadership training before they can perform with the theater company. Members receive training in all areas, which enables the group to create pieces for performance. The group also initiated a community service aspect. Each year, members visit nursing homes, help in block cleanups, and organize food drives in their neighborhoods. Impact also travels throughout the New York area to churches, the Harlem Health Fair, the United Nations, hospitals, the Apollo Theatre, and prisons and has appeared on CBS and HBO.
IN DAHOMEY (1903). This is the first hit musical for the comic team of Bert Williams and George Walker. It opened in New York City (18 February 1903). Hertig and Seamon produced it, J. A. Shipp wrote the book and directed it, Will Marion Cook composed for it, and Alex Rogers wrote the lyrics. In the first two acts, Williams and Walker search for a missing silver box. Pursued by the law, they escape to Africa, where they decide to remain because they like the way they are treated—like kings.
Williams played Shylock Homestead, and Walker played Razer-back Pinkerton. The cast also included Alex Rogers (George Reeder), J. A. Shipp (Hustling Charley), J. Leubrie Hill (Officer Still), Abbie Mitchell (Pansy), Aida Overton Walker (Sosetta Lightfoot), Chares Moore (JeJe, a caboceer), William Elking (Menuki, messenger of the king), William Barker (Mose Lightfoot), Pete Hampton (Hamilton Lightfoot), Fred Douglas (Dr. Straight), Walter Richardson (Henry Stampfield), George Catlin (Me Sing, a Chinese cook), Richard Conners (Leather, a bootblack), Green Tapley (White Wash Man), Theodore Pankey (Messenger Rush), Hattie McIntosh (Cecilia Lightfoot), and Lottie Williams (Mrs. Stringer). After the Broadway run, Williams and Walker took the show to London, where it played before Edward VII. They returned the show to America and took it on a successful tour between 1904 and 1905.
INNERACT PRODUCTIONS. This is a member of the Alliance of Resident Theatres in New York City, a consortium of Quality Theatres by artists of color. Operating for six years as a not-for-profit production company, InnerAct Productions provides a venue for actors to develop their craft freely, to produce works of quality within the heart of the New York theater district, and to provide ongoing training. Since 1999, InnerAct has produced at least one vital stage performance that depicted and represented cultural norms and experiences of both historical and current African American life. In the spring of 2000, the company began offering the actors workshops, a free two-hour lecture and demonstration series run by the artistic director to all career-seeking performing artists. In the fall of 2001, InnerAct implemented a mentoring program of 45 students to provide exposure to high school and college students. It gave the students an opportunity to work with professional artists in a theater and to gain hands-on experience in the areas of marketing, directing, lighting, costume design, stage design, sound, stage management, producing, and the box office.
INNER-CITY CULTURAL CENTER. See JACKSON, CLARENCE BERNARD.