The Harlem Artist’s De­vel­op­ment League Es­pe­cially for You, a.k.a. The H.A.D.L.E.Y. Play­ers, is a non-​​profit 501©(3) the­ater or­ga­ni­za­tion, es­tab­lished in 1980 in the Harlem com­mu­nity by Ms. Gertrude Jeannette.

Cur­rently we present three ma­jor the­atri­cal pro­duc­tions per year, un­der the Eq­uity Show­case Code, that are both in­for­ma­tive and en­ter­tain­ing. We serve a di­verse au­di­ence of all cul­tures and back­grounds, pri­mar­ily peo­ple of color. The fol­low­ing break­down is an au­di­ence ap­prox­i­ma­tion: 90% African Amer­i­cans, 10% oth­ers, with 30% of our au­di­ence com­posed of the el­derly and peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties. The ages range from youths to the el­derly, with a pri­mary con­cen­tra­tion in the 40s-​​and-​​up cat­e­gory. The ma­jor­ity of our au­di­ence comes from the New York City bor­oughs of Man­hat­tan, the Bronx, Brook­lyn, and Queens, though we at­tract pa­trons from as far away as North and South Carolina.

Our ded­i­ca­tion and com­mit­ment to our com­mu­nity has been proven many times through a stan­dard of artis­tic ex­cel­lence as ev­i­denced by crit­i­cal ac­claim, more than twenty years of com­mu­nity sup­port, and mul­ti­ple awards of recog­ni­tion be­stowed upon our founder and CEO, Ms. Gertrude Jeannette.

Through­out the years The H.A.D.L.E.Y. Play­ers have gar­nered ac­co­lades and rave re­views as well as nu­mer­ous AUDELCO Awards and nom­i­na­tions, such as the following.

1997 – 1998 : “Bolt From The Blue” by Gertrude Jeannette

• Best Dra­matic Production
• Best Di­rec­tor
• Lead Ac­tress
• Best Scenic Design

1997 – 1998 : “Gladys’ Dilemma” by Gertrude Jeannette

• Best Sup­port­ing Actress

2001 – 2002 : “Amer­i­can Menu” by Don Wil­son Glenn

• Best Dra­matic Production
• Best Play
• Best En­sem­ble

2001 – 2002 : “J’ai Deus Amours” by Kim­berly “Q” Purnell

• Best Ac­tress

2003 – 2004 : “A Song For You/​The Lena Horne Story” by Wendi Joy Franklin

• Best Ac­tress

2005 – 2006 : “HOME” by Samm-​​Art Williams

• Best En­sem­ble

2006 – 2007 : “The Guest At Cen­tral Park West” by Levy Lee Simon

• Best Play
• Best Ac­tor
• Best Dra­matic Pro­duc­tion (tied)

2008 – 2009 : “A Bolt from the Blue” by Gertrude Jeannette

• Nom­i­nated for Best Re­vival of a Play

The H.A.D.L.E.Y. Play­ers The­atre of­fers af­ford­able fam­ily pric­ing, an en­tice­ment which al­lows our com­mu­nity and sur­round­ing area res­i­dents to view and ex­pe­ri­ence not only fam­ily en­ter­tain­ment: Dra­mas, Mys­ter­ies, Come­dies, also Ed­u­ca­tional The­atre par­tic­u­larly vi­tal to in­quir­ing minds.