Harlem’s H.A.D.L.E.Y. Players Looks To The Future

H.A.D.L.E.Y. Players, one of Harlem’s last surviving Black theater companies, is forging forward into the future after some 30 plus years.

Founded in 1980 by Gertrude Hadley Jeannette, the theater group kicks off its latest season on Tuesday with a performance of “The Devil & Elijah Muhammad” at the Harlem School of the Arts Theatre.

“When we started out, my students were Esther Rolle, Isabel Sanford and Rosalind Cash,” Hadley Jeannette, 96, told the Daily News. “They started out on my stage. I was their first teacher and they all came from Harlem.”