Anthony B. Major
Theater students at the Booker Performing Arts High School know the name Anthony B. “Tony” Major because their rehearsal hall bears the moniker.
Major is the first honoree of Booker High’s Leaving a Legacy Award. He grew up in Newtown playing baseball in the Negro League with his brother and uncles. Negro Baseball League legend John “Buck” O’Neil and Major’s father were best friends. Major also played clarinet in the Booker High School band under the direction of Alexander Valentine. But switching majors from music to theater at Hofstra University changed his path.
His directing career spans decades and includes acting, teaching and producing Broadway and Off Broadway shows, and working with Academy Award winners Alan Pakula, Robert Mulligan, Robert DeNiro, Hal Ashby, Beau Bridges, Sidney Poitier, James Earl Jones, William Friedkin, Harry Belafonte, Eddie Murphy, Della Reese and Gil Lewis.
Major is program director of the Zora Neale Hurston Institute for Documentary Studies, and the Africana Studies Program in the College of Arts & Humanities; and associate professor in the Film School of Visual Art & Design at the University of Central Florida. His research at UCF led to the production of documentaries and exhibits, Jesse L. Brown, the 1st African American Navy Fighter Pilot (shot down during the Korean War), and Goldsboro: An American Story. He has produced and directed several theatre and film productions at UCF, in collaboration with the nationally renowned, Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts, in Eatonville, Florida.
Oral Interview: Anthony B. Major
