Theatre Morgan presents
for colored girls who have
considered suicide/when
the rainbow is enuf
a choreopoem by Ntozake Shange
directed by Trezana Beverley
(Tony Award Winner of the original Broadway production)
for colored girls qho have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf is a 1975 experimental play by Ntozake Shange. Initially staged in California, it has been performed Off-Broadway and on Broadway. It has also been adapted as a book, a television film, and a theatrical film. The 1976 Broadway production was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play.
Structurally, for colored girls is a series of 20 poems,
collectively called a "choreopoem." Shange's poetry expresses the many
struggles and obstacles that African-American women face throughout
their lives. It is performed by a cast of seven women characters, each
of whom is known only by a color: "Lady in Yellow," "Lady in Purple,"
etc. The poems deal with love, abandonment, rape and abortion,
embodied by each woman's story, e.g. Lady in Blue's visceral account of
a woman who chooses to have an abortion, and Lady in Red's tale of domestic violence.
The end of the play brings together all of the women for "a laying on
of hands," in which Shange evokes the power of womanhood as the Lady in
Red begins the mantra "I found God in myself/and I loved her/I loved her
fiercely."
TICKETS:
Tickets are available at the Murphy Fine Arts Center Ticket Office (443-885-4440), The MSU Ticket Office (located on the 1st level of the University Student Center: 443-885-1522); all Ticketmaster Charge-by-Phone (410-547-SEAT); all Ticketmaster Outlets; and ticketmaster.com (link to Ticketmaster online via the red TICKET INFO link (above) for any of the performances