2.1.4: "The African Company Presents Richard III", 1988-1989, 1991-1996, 2000-2001, 2008-2009, and undated

"Brown was inspired by a chapter in the Black Shakespearean actor, Ira Aldridge's biography ("Shakespeare in Sable," by Eric Hill), which nurtured his fascination with the origins of Black performing styles. "In 1821, the African Company was a theater company in Manhattan composed of Black men and women during a period of time in America when slavery was still legal. The actors in the African Company come from a variety of places: the Southern states, the Caribbean Islands and Africas. These are men and women, without any families, who join together for the purpose of putting on plays."

"The African Company Presents "Richard III a play within a play, in which Brown reconstructs the historical events surrounding the near-demise of the African Company, a noteworthy though largely ignored African-American acting troupe. The play centers upon the African Company's attempts to stage a rival production of Shakespeare's Richard III at the same time as English actor Junius Brutus Booth's production of the play at the Park Theatre. The manager of the Park Theatre, through various political maneuvers, has the African Company closed down, but the troupe eventually returns, not with a Shakespearean play but with an African-American piece entitled The Drama of King Shotaway."

"The African Company..." is the winner of the Penumbra Theatre Company's National Black Playwriting Award.