Vinnette Justine Carroll (March 11, 1922 – November 5, 2002) was an American playwright, actress, and theatre director. She was the first African-American woman to direct on Broadway, with her 1972 production of the musical Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope. Until Liesl Tommy's 2016 nomination for Eclipsed, Carroll was the only African-American woman to have received a Tony Award nomination for direction. Life and work Carroll was born in New York City to Edgar Edgerton, a dentist, and Florence (Morris) Carroll. She moved to Jamaica with her family at the age of three, and spent much of her childhood there. Brought back to New York at the age of 10, she and her two sisters were the only black students at their New York public school. Her mother was a strong presence who played Arturo Toscanini in the home and disciplined her three daughters wisely. Her father encouraged his daughters to become physicians. Carroll compromised by studying psychology. She left the field of psychology to study theater, and in 1948 accepted a scholarship to attend Erwin Piscator’s Dramatic Workshop at the New School for Social Research. There, she studied with Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler, Margaret Barker, and Susan Steele. Carroll later founded the Urban Arts Corps, a nonprofit, interracial community theater where, as artistic director, she was able to provide a professional workshop for aspiring young actors in underserved communities. She produced over 100 plays through the Urban Arts Corps from her loft theatre on West 20th Street in Manhattan. The theater was a member of the Black Theater Alliance and the Off-Off Broadway Alliance, and was supported by the New York State Council on the Arts, the National Endowment of the Arts, the Edward Noble Foundation, and CBS. Urban Arts Corps productions included Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope, Jean-Paul Sartre'sThe Flies, and William Hanley's Slow Dance on a Killing Ground, among many others. The theater provided a space to "nurture emerging playwrights and showcase their works." In 1968, Carroll joined the New York State Council on the Arts upon the request of executive director John B. Hightower. She had previously been appointed director of the Ghetto Arts Program for the State of New York. Education Carroll attended Wadleigh High School, an integrated high school in Harlem, Manhattan. She then received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Long Island University in 1944. In 1946, she received her Master