The Caribbean American Repertory Theatre (CART) was founded in 1975 by a core of Caribbean Actors. Our mission is to provide Caribbean, African and Afro-American Theatre to Black communities in New York City by creating a culturally artistic arena for theatre artists to share and display their skills, talents and cultural diversity. The company aims to present a deeper level of the lives of Caribbean, African and Afro-American people beyond what is seen by tourists, while fostering a climate of cross-cultural communication and understanding between Americans in the United States and people from the Caribbean and Africa.
Our company's history includes performances in Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan. Several seasons included the repertoire production of Echoes From the Diaspora, which was created from our free workshops, in 1993, at the Black Spectrum Theatre, under the aegis of the Southern Queens Park Association. This production featured actors who wrote and performed stories based on their own experiences as immigrants from the Caribbean and Africa. A protion of this production, which addressed the issue of homelessness among immigrants, was videotaped by Queens Public Television and aired on public access channels in Queens and Brooklyn.
In 1997 CART collaborated with the Southern Queens Park Association and Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn to present performances in Queens and Brooklyn by the Mighty Sparrow of Trinidad and Tobago; and conferring an honorary doctorate on this calypsonian who is often called the "Calypso King of the World".
CART has presented staged-readings of new plays through collaborations with Radio Station WWRL, Community United Methodist Church of Harlem and this year with the New Federal Theatre and Metropolitan College of Manhattan. Our history also includes a collaboration with radio station WBAI to present the radio play Sweet Karaila by the Guyanese playwright Dr. Victor Forsythe. We also teamed with the famed Theatre of the Living Word to present Oliver Stephenson's biting political satire, In the Palace Where He Sits, and Errol John's Moon on a Rainbow Shawl (also presented in Manhattan with support from Woodie King, Jr.'s New Federal Theatre)  Recent collaborations with the Black Spectrum Theater in Queens and Metro Arts at the Community United Methodist church of Harlem, the company was able to present Jestina's Calypso and The New Hardware Store by Earl Lovelace of Trinidad and Tobago and brought Mr. Lovelace to New York as an artist-in-residence and host of our two symposiums on Caribbean Theatre.
CART also extended Drama Workshops to the Harlem community under the auspices of the Metropolitan Community United Methodist Church. .