For more than 40 years Vernon F. Blackman was a significant force in the theater. Beginning his stage career with the Little Theater Players, he founded the People's Theater Players, he founded the People's Theater Company of Cambridge and the Theater Company of Boston. From the 1950s until his death in 1990, Blackman was an instructor and mentor to Blacks in the theater. He appeared in the Theater Company of Boston's 1964 production of 'In the Jungle of the Cities' and in 'Something about the Blues,' a 1979 TV drama shown nationally on PBS. He became director of drama at the Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts in 1968, and for the next 21 Christmas seasons he directed the School's production of 'Black Nativity.'