Vinnette Carroll (1922-2002) was the first African American woman to direct a Broadway production. After earning degrees in psychology, she studied acting with Erwin Piscator, Lee Strasberg, and Stella Adler.
While working as an actor on and off Broadway, she also taught drama for 11 years at NYC’s High School of Performing Arts. In 1967, she founded the Urban Arts Corps, which produced over 100 plays with Black and Puerto Rican youth around the city.
Her groundbreaking, Tony-nominated directing debut was the 1972 production of Micki Grant’s DON’T BOTHER ME, I CAN’T COPE.
She is pictured here directing the cast of YOUR ARMS TOO SHORT TO BOX WITH GOD (1976), an adaptation of the Gospel of Matthew, for which she also wrote the book.