HAPPY BIRTHDAY, VINNETTE JUSTINE CARROLL
(March 11, 1922-November 5, 2002)  An American playwright and actress, Vinnette Carroll was the first African-American women to direct on Broadway, with the 1972 musical Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope. 
In 1948 she accepted a scholarship to attend Erwin Piscator's Dramatic Workshop as the New School for Social Research and studied with Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler, and Margaret Barker.
She remains the only African-American woman to receive a Tony nomination for Direction. She founded the Urban Arts Corp, a non -profit, interracial community, where, as artistic director, she was able to provide a professional workshop for aspiring young actors in ghetto areas.
She joined the faculty of the Performing Arts High School in New York where she taught theatre arts and directed productions for eleven years.
Due to the shortage of roles, she created a one-woman show and toured the United States and the West Indies.  She also acted in London as Sophia Adams in Errol John's Moon on A Rainbow Shawl for which she received an Obie award in New York. She worked in films and television and received an Emmy Award in 1964 for Beyond The Blues, which dramatized the works of African-American poets.

Today, her body of work signifies a great contribution to the the commercial theatre. She helped to develop "the gospel song-play", in order to capture the richness and variety of life through music, theater and dance.  In 1957 she formed her first all-black cast to present Dark of the Moon at the Harlem YMCA.   The second production of the play launched the careers of young African-American actors--James Earl Jones, Shauneille Perry, and Harold Scott.

But it was in 1972 that she became the first African-American woman to direct on Broadway with her staging of Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope. This hit gospel revue was conceived by Carroll, with music and lyrics by Micki Grant and it was nominated for four Tony awards.  Her success was repeated in 1976, collaborating with Micki Grant and Alex Bradford with Your Arms Too Short To Box With God, which garnered three Tony nominations.

 Vinnette Carroll's work served as the stepping stone for future aspiring directors. Too often, her contributions as a successful artist and playwright are widely overlooked and not acknowledged. She set the tone for professionalism in theatrical arts. Her theater was about life and the reaffirmation of life and its people. Frustrated by the common perceptions and stereotypes of African-Americans inspired her to create and direct new works that positively and artistically represented people of color in theater and art.  She gave a voice to minority communities that had been culturally and artistically silent.