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A renowned writer, producer, teacher, actor and visionary, African-American Barbara Ann Teer grew disillusioned with the negative stereotypes she came across in her quest for responsible acting roles. Instead of simply walking away from the white-dominated entertainment field, she decided to make a difference. Focusing on appreciation of African-American culture in Harlem, she became a strong, eloquent symbol for the city and it was she who founded Harlem's distinguished National Black Theater (NBT), running it tirelessly for four decades until her death at age 71.
The Illinois native, who was born in East St. Louis on June 18, 1937, to parents who both served as educators and school administrators, her father also served in city government. An extremely gifted child, Barbara graduated from high school at age 15. First attending Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina, she experienced a strong racial divide that would shape her later character. She transfered after her freshman year and received her bachelor of arts (graduating magna cum laude) in dance education from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She then studied dance in Europe and at one point toured with Martha Graham. She moved to New York in 1959 and appeared in a number of stage productions there, making her Broadway debut as a dancer in 1961's "Kwamina" while also serving as dance captain to famed choreographer 'Agnes DeMille'. Injuries eventually forced her to rethink the direction of her career. She returned to Broadway five years later as part of the cast of the comedy "Where's Daddy?" An early, brief marriage to actor/comedian Godfrey Cambridge, who succumbed to a heart attack in 1976, ended in divorce.
Off-Broadway Barbara earned her share of notices along with other prominent and/or up-and-coming black talent. Productions included "Raisin' Hell in the Son" (1962) with Janet MacLachlan; "Home Movies" (1964), which earned her a Drama Desk Award; "Day of Absence" (1965) with Robert Hooks, Esther Rolle, Adolph Caesar, Frances Foster, Hattie Winston and Moses Gunn; and "Who's Got His Own" (1966) with Estelle Evans, Roger Robinson and Glynn Turman. But she grew restless and felt she wasn't expanding enough. During the 1960s she also began teaching at Harlem's Wadleigh Junior High School. It was her method of instruction that helped to develop the Group Theatre Workshop, which would become the foundation for the illustrious Negro Ensemble Company.
The couple of roles she received in film were prime examples of her discontent. Slaves (1969), helmed and produced by white executives, starred Stephen Boyd, Dionne Warwick and Ossie Davis was an Old South rehash deemed trashy and overwrought with caricature types with Boyd serving as a Simon Legree stand-in. In The Angel Levine (1970), she played a welfare woman. As far back as 1968, she wrote a fierce article in The New York Times encouraging a change. Wishing better for herself as a person and a performer, she sought an autonomous black artistic culture free from mainstream influence.
That same year (1968) Teer founded the National Black Theater, a non-profit institution dedicated to the performing arts, community advocacy and the appreciation of the history and lifestyle of Black Americans. The theater bought its own residence at 125th Street and Fifth Avenue with financing she arranged. As its executive director, she took on the daunting task of fund-raising in addition to her administrative duties. The theater held classes, workshops, symposiums and lectures, produced shows, and presented art exhibits. Creatively, she also wrote and directed for the theater's music, dance and theater troupe that subsequently toured in Bermuda, Guyana, Haiti, South Africa and Trinidad, and throughout the United States. Two of her plays, "Revival, A: Change! Love! Organize!" and "Soljourney into Truth," were first produced at NBT in 1972 and 1975, respectively. Both themes reflected black culture and the importance of self-love. On stage at NBT, the appeared in "Five on the Black Hand Side" (1969) along with Jonelle Allen, Theresa Merritt and Clarice Taylor.
Barbara's significance to Harlem's cultural renaissance was rewarded in later years. Dr. Barbara Ann Teer received an honorary doctorate degree from the University of Rochester, New York in 1994, and the following year a second honorary doctorate degree of humane letters from the University of Southern Illinois. She also was the 2001 recipient of the Otto Award for political theater. Listed in "Who's Who in America" and "Who's Who Worldwide," she received more than sixty awards and citations for her contributions.
Barbara died of natural causes in her beloved Harlem on July 21, 2008, at age 71. As tribute, she laid in state at the National Black Theatre. She is survived by her two children, Barbara and Michael Lipscott, and was interred back with her ancestors in her native East St. Louis.
