Theater Finds Its King

By Stephen M. Silverman

04/22/1998 at 12:00 AM EDT

Screen legend Sidney Poitier, 74, presented veteran stage and movie producer Philip Rose ("A Raisin in the Sun") a Lifetime Achievement Award during Woodie King Jr.'s New Federal Theater 30th year gala awards celebration at Broadway's Majestic Theater on Sunday. King's theater helped launch the careers of such luminaries as Morgan Feeman, Denzel Washington, Debbie Allen, Phylicia Rashad, Glynn Thurman, Garrett Morris, Laurence Fishburne, Vondie Curtis Hall and others. Speaking of what the theater group has accomplished, "Roc" actor Charles Dutton, 50, told PEOPLE, "The American theater as a whole is on a respirator, and Woody has managed to maintain (his) for 30 years . . . I guess he has some different type of oxygen." Saluting the fact that "Woodie is a miracle" in that his group has done some 3,000 productions over the course of 30 years, Dutton said, "If you are from the theater you must respect Woodie." As for the ongoing problem of black unemployment in Hollywood, Dutton said, "I know just as many white actors out of work as I know black ones. There is always an 85% unemployment rate in this business . . . There are more people than there are jobs." Still, he points out, "If you are talented and black, it is going to be a longer road unlike if you are talented and white."