Bio

Voza Rivers, founding member of New Heritage Theatre is an accomplished theatre, music, film and events producer and is recognized as one of the country’s leading African American theatre producers. Rivers’ involvement in the theatre dates back to 1964 when he met Roger Furman, a playwright/ director, and a member of the American Negro Theatre (1940-1949), which included Ruby Dee, Harry Belafonte, Sidney Poitier, Gertrude Jeannette, and Fred O’Neil among many others. Furman launched New Heritage Repertory Theatre in 1964 based on the American Negro Theatre model.  Rivers joined New Heritage with Furman’s encouragement and learned all the vital roles of theater production including proposal writing, negotiating contracts, producing plays, focusing lights, constructing sets, evaluating scripts, and working with actors, directors, technicians, et al.

Rivers became Executive Director of New Heritage upon Furman’s death in 1983.  In 1973 Furman directed a staged revival of the American Negro’s Theatre’s 1940’s production of Striver’s Row, starring Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis.  Under River’s leadership New Heritage produced, in tribute to Furman, a 1983 production of “Strivers Row,” which earned New Heritage lavish praise and many awards. The successful impact of “Striver’s Row” inspired Rivers to look beyond the African American experience and reach across the world to introduce Harlem to the works of Black South African playwrights and actors.  In 1984, New Heritage convinced the producers of a 2 character South African play, “Woza Albert!” appearing at the Lucille Lortel Theater in New York City to allow New Heritage to produce “Woza Albert!” in Harlem. That production started a historic relationship between New Heritage and Black South African artists that has garnered such major productions as “Asinamali!” and “Sarafina!” the musical – both shows went to Broadway.  The relationship between South Africa and famed South African playwrights Mbongeni Ngema and Duma Ndlovu continues to this day. In 1989, New Heritage co-produced with Lincoln Center Theatre a musical concert featuring Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masakela and the “Sarafina!” cast at Radio City Music Hall.

In 1997, Rivers teamed up with playwright, director, author, professor, activist Jamal Joseph to expand the Roger Furman/New Heritage Theatre company into 3 divisions: IMPACT Repertory Theatre - the Youth Division, New Heritage Films, producers of documentaries and short films, and the Furman Theatre Rep, an ensemble group of players, emerging and established, to present works written and directed by artists of color.

Theatre Highlights: Co-produced with Lincoln Center Theatre Mbongeni Ngema’s “Township Fever” at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (1990), produced “Third Rhythm” at the world famous Apollo Theatre (1990),  Co-produced with Haworth Shakespeare Festival, “The Tragedy of Macbeth” at the historic St. Bartholomew’s church, featuring leading black actors from the Royal Shakespeare Company and Royal National Theatre in England, (1991),  Co-produced with Lincoln Center, celebrated novelist Gloria Naylor’s (Women of Brewster Place), first play “Bailey’s Café,” as a staged reading in the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater (1992), produced the hit Caribbean musical “Rasta” at Harlem’s Victoria 5 Theatre (1995), and the successful “Voices of Griots” monthly play reading series at B. Smith’s Rooftop Café (1990-1996).  From 2000 on New Heritage produced the premiere of iconic British director Peter Brook’s “Tierno Bokar,” the OBIE award-winning play “The Huey P. Newton Story” at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and the plays of OBIE, AUDELCO, and NAACP award winning playwright and actor Daniel Beaty  “Emergency,” “Through the Night,” “Tearing Down the Walls,” and “Mr. Joy.”