programs for ANT productions. The company's most successful production Anna Lucasta ultimately led to its demise. Anna Lucasta, which was inspired by Eugene O'Neil's Anna Christie, was "originally conceived as the story of a sordid, impoverished Polish family in a small Pennsylvania town," but Yordan could not find a company to perform it, so he rewrote it to feature a Black family, and it was performed by the ANT in 1944. According to a notice in the Brooklyn Eagle on March 30, 1944, the sets for that initial production were designed by the American realist painter Michael Lenson, but that has not been verified. Five weeks later, the play opened on Broadway where it launched the career of Ruby Dee and scored star Alice Childress, the first Tony nomination for a Black actress. Nine New York newspaper dailies reviewed the show. They all raved and producers instantly started fighting over who would get the rights to the play. Yordan agreed to sign a Dramatists Guild contract that would make Hill the co-author of Anna Lucasta. This gave Hill a five percent author's royalty. The ANT itself received few royalties for Anna Lucasta, and the next three ANT plays to appear on Broadway were not successful. As a result, divisions developed within the company, with many determined to repeat the success of Anna Lucasta, at the cost of their earlier emphasis on a "people's theatre", and Hill's own break with the company. From then on, the ANT only featured plays from established white playwrights, and young actors viewed the ANT as a means to break into Broadway productions. Mission The ANT had a four-part mission: To develop a permanent acting company trained in the arts and crafts of the theatre that also reflected the special gifts, talents, and attributes of African Americans. To produce plays that honestly, and with integrity, interpreted, illuminated, and criticized contemporary Black life and the concerns of the Black people. To maintain an affiliation with, and provide leadership for, other Black theatre groups throughout the nation. To utilize its resources to develop racial pride in the theatre, rather than racial apathy. Constitution When the ANT was first founded in 1940, the group created a 30-page constitution for themselves that reflected the ideals of the Federal Theatre Project. The constitution also drew upon W. E. B. Du Bois's belief that African-American theatre should be by, about, for, and