The organization was founded in 1968 by Rosetta LeNoire as the Amas Repertory Theatre to promote interracial and color-blind casting.
In her words, it was a place "where all people could work together, with respect for individual skills and talents, rather than for race or color.
"[1] Amas' first production, Soul, Yesterday and Today, which was based on the poetry of Langston Hughes, held its rehearsals in the basement of LeNoire's home in the Bronx.
[7] This is a performance and training program which enrolls up to 30 teenagers and young adults between the ages of 14 and 21 in all-day classes and rehearsals on Saturdays and some Sundays from October through May.
This is an in-residence set of workshops for middle and high school students consisting of 32 visits specializing in playwriting, theatre, and musical composition.
This is an in-residence program which explores the Civil Rights Movement, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Protest and Peace Songs, among other things.
This is a program for elementary and middle school students to study Native American, Asian, classical Western and European mythologies and heroic icons.