WILMINGTON — The first Black playwright to stage a play on Broadway has roots in the Port City. And a theater group that started in his honor, to help propel stories indicative of African-American culture presented by actors and actresses of color, will relaunch early next year after being on hiatus since 2019.
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The Willis Richardson Players have announced they will produce Ossie Davis’ “Purlie Victorious (A Non-Confederate Romp through the Cotton Patch)” in early 2026, directed by local thespian and writer Fracaswell “Cas” Hyman. The group formally announced their comeback at last month’s Wilmington Theater Awards, but the day before, Hyman and Willis Richardson Players Board President Angel Major spoke with Port City Daily about the theater company’s next chapter.
“I want to see this legacy continue,” Major said. “And we have a professional who is going to guide, direct and make this a great adventure.”
Hyman is a writer, producer, actor and director who came to Wilmington just more than a decade ago from L.A., where he created “The Famous Jett Jackson” for the Disney Channel. He has won numerous Wilmington Theater Awards as both an actor and director, and last year executive produced and wrote the inaugural season of the PBS Kids series “Lyla in the Loop.”
“I think there is room for more Black voices, more stories and if I have the opportunity to help do that, that’s what I’m doing,” Hyman said. “That’s the wall Willis Richardson broke down when he put a play on Broadway.”
Born in Wilmington in the late 1880s, Richardson is known as “the Black Father of Drama.” Yet, his family was driven out of town by white supremacists during the Wilmington coup and massacre of 1898 and resettled in Washington D.C. Richardson studied poetry and writing in his youth, encouraged by playwright and tutor Mary Burrill, and staged shows in high school and colleges.
It wasn’t until 1923 that Richardson’s “The Chip Woman’s Fortune,” from Chicago’s Ethiopian Arts Players, opened on Broadway at the Frazee Theater and ran for 31 performances. Married with three children, Richardson’s day job was working for the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing; however, he continued to write other productions including 1924’s “Mortgaged” and 1925’s “The Boot Black Lover,” and ended up with awards for “The Broken Banjo.”
Richardson works arose from the Harlem Renaissance and were character pieces dramatizing Black heroes but also getting to the soul of people. He died in 1977, but three years before his death a group of locals in Wilmington banded together to found the Willis Richardson Players. The group became revered for producing culturally relevant content within the Black community that also highlighted opportunities for Black performers.
It was founded by Peter Smith, Jim Johnson, and Gloria Ramos, among others, with some of its first early members including Lela Thompson and her husband, Melvin.
“She saw an ad in the paper about it and decided to join because she always loved theater,” according to Major, Thompson’s granddaughter. “She did their first production in 1974 at Orange and Second, at what is now the Hannah Block theater.”
According to Major, Thompson’s passion and love was theater, having performed as the Wicked Witch of the West in Willis Richardson Players’ “The Wiz,” which Major remembered as a “just really fun” experience, with a cast of 20 or so members running around and dancing. The players did an all-Black production of “Hello Dolly!” as well, though Major said one of her grandmother’s favorites was Fats Waller’s “Ain’t Misbehavin’.”
Thompson attended the all-Black Williston High School, where her love for theater began, before becoming the first Black woman to graduate from Wilmington College (now UNCW). She spent her career in education, teaching elementary- and middle-school school children, but for more than three decades was dedicated to helping this local theater company stage two shows a year. Major said her grandmother had her hands in everything, from props to costumes.
“A lot of the board members didn’t know, but even if the nonprofit did or didn’t have grants, she would, under the table, fund it,” Major said.
The theater company would normally only pay the director, but Thompson often would slip envelopes of cash to the stage manager or makeup artist.
At her grandmother’s urging, Major also became part of the Willis Richardson Players during youth, performing in Lorraine Hansberry “A Raisin in the Sun” then directed by Lethia Hankins, a former city council member. As an elementary school-aged child, Major recalls being in awe of the talent in Wilmington, such as Maxwell Paige and Daren Beatty — both of whom directed plays for the players throughout the years, along with Tony Rivenbark and Evelyn Noble Nixon.
Just in the last 12 months or so, Major said she began mulling over these fond memories and leaned into bringing it back to the community. Willis Richardson Players plan to do two shows a year again starting in 2026. Major said the goal of the theater company is to explore various storylines and perspectives of the world through a diverse lens that also engages in human connection.
“I think sometimes we are sheltered in our own little space, what’s in front of us and what’s around us, and we don’t look at the outside world,” she said. “Theater provides that energy for a lot of people — you can be who you want to be in theater, step into someone else’s shoes.”
The last show from the Willis Richardson Players was in 2019, but once the coronavirus pandemic hit, productions stalled. During this time, Lela Thompson died of natural causes; it was 2023, eight years after her husband Melvin passed. She has a lifetime achievement award named in her honor as part of the Wilmington Theater Awards, of which Thompson was the first recipient at the inaugural 2012 ceremony.
It made sense for Major to announce Willis Richardson Players’ return at the March 2025 ceremony.
Since December, Major said the Willis Richardson Players board have been working diligently on securing rights to “Purlie Victorious,” which came through this week. Major reached out to the Arts Council of New Hanover County and Wilmington, which provided $5,000 in seed money.
“It’s wonderful that they can come back,” NHC Arts Council Director Rhonda Bellamy said. “I’ve always believed in their mission, drive and passion for ensuring this important footnote in American theater history, that emanated from here in Wilmington, continues”
“Purlie Victorious” will run for one weekend in mid-January 2026 at the Ruth and Bucky Stein Theater at Thalian Hall. Auditions are planned for October for the nine-member cast, which Hyman said will be integrated.
“Purlie” playwright Ossie Davis starred in the show’s inaugural run in the ‘60s. The show had a revival in New York a few years ago which Hyman saw as well.
“I was stunned how modern it was,” he said. “And how it had things to say that we still need to hear today. It remains of the moment.”
Themes include perseverance — in this case Purlie not giving up on saving his small hometown church in rural Georgia. The plot centers on the preacher’s scheme to win back his inheritance. Hyman called the protagonist a “trickster,” or rather an opportunist in search of equity.
“He’s not trying to take something that isn’t his,” Hyman clarified. “Rather, he is up against a system, in the ‘60s South, that is stacked against him at every turn. He is smart enough and wily enough to get around it.”
Purlie faces trials and tribulations on his path and the play covers it in a smart and humorous way, according to Hyman: “He says things that need to be said, but in a way that tickle you at the same time.”
Hyman first was introduced to the show as a Cub Scout in the ‘70s, but it was the musical version called “Purlie,” starring Melba Moore, Clifton Davis and Sherman Hemsley. He said the play changed his life, but the Willis Richardson Players are taking up the straight comedy, not the musical version.
“But it’s the same message,” Hyman assured.
While launching the production is the first goal, Major added she would like to see Willis Richardson Players pick back up on its community outreach, too, eventually. The group used to host a fundraiser variety show to help find talent within the community, which would then be showcased in their plays.
“But production and community outreach are separate,” she said. “I can remember going into various communities in Bolivia and into nursing homes. I would like to do that again and even host workshops for youth.”
She said the beauty of theater is it encompasses all of the arts, not just one area, so it can appeal to various people with talents — actors, dancers, singers, artists and the like.
“Like my daughter loves to draw and I told her, ‘Hey, one day maybe you’ll be an artist-designing sets,’” she said.
The theater group’s two shows a year likely will consist of an older production and a newer show, with the goal to expand reach and diversify. Hyman said the global theater scene is vast now with new playwrights and works — many writers of color, both women and men. He would like to see more content that matters, resonates and crosses boundaries.
“New writers excite me,” Hyman said, “and I think we need to bring that home to Wilmington.”
Hyman has signed on to do one show for now but hopes Willis Richardson Players will continue pushing boundaries as it has for the last 50 years. Major agreed.
“It’s important for us to talk about history so we won’t go back to the same and understand where we come from,” she said. “There’s always a story to be told.”
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