Slater Vance, son of actress Angela Bassett, has revived the Black student theater group his mother founded at Yale University in 1979.

The group was first known as the Heritage Theater Ensemble and stopped operating during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Yale Daily News reported. Vance, a member of Yale’s class of 2028, relaunched it in August as the Heritage Production Company. He and classmate Chin Onwu serve as co-presidents.

Bassett earned her bachelor’s degree from Yale in 1980 and her MFA from its drama school in 1983. The ensemble she started was the university’s first Black student theater group. According to Vance, she created it because at the time “there were no Black roles, even in the Geffen School of Drama.”

Vance said the ensemble served as a gathering space for Black creatives and theater students, who performed sonnets there. Its past productions include Filling Basins and Topdog/Underdog. He said his mother is excited about the revival.

In its new form, the company will work in both theater and film. Vance said the group plans to produce one play and one film each semester. Its first production will be John Guare’s Six Degrees of Separation in spring 2027. Vance said he wants the company to tell stories connected to the African diaspora and to encourage more Black creatives on campus.

Nearly 70 students are registered members, according to the company’s Yale Connect page. One of them is Sumaiya Bangura, a film major in the class of 2029. She told the Yale Daily News she believes Black collaboration is lacking in film. She said she hopes the company will encourage more Black students to take creative risks and to make new work that adds to the Black canon.

Demi Singleton, who played Serena Williams in the 2021 film King Richard, also belongs to the class of 2029. She said she expects the company to help connect students through creative work.

The executive board includes Vance, Onwu, Willa Jackson, Talia Hsia, Hera Farago, Zachary Minter and Isabel Tiburcio.