The Signature Theater devotes its new season to revivals of pioneering work from the NEGRO ENSEMBLE COMPANY, the theater company established in 1967 to present — and perhaps to inspire — new plays by and about black Americans. The season opens on Thursday with a production of “THE FIRST BREEZE OF SUMMER,” a 1975 play by LESLIE LEE about a middle-class black family in the Northeast.

Leslie Uggams plays the central role of the family matriarch