![]() In December 1974, Shange would share short readings of her poetry, as dancer Paula Moss danced with musical accompaniment. To trace the origins of for colored girls, one has to go to Bacchanal, a feminist bar near Berkley, California. “We go through pain, but we also go through joy too, and there’s so much within one poem that goes from feeling like it is maybe low and painful, but then a reclamation happened.” “We go through spectrums,” said Brown in reference to embracing the joy in Shange’s piece. Humor is central to Shange’s work, with Brown using school yard games that many Black women will find familiar, references she also imbues in her 2015 work Black Girl: Linguistic Play, a reference piece for this mounting. Almost no story is shared in total isolation, with even singular anecdotes receiving snaps and “mms” from the women on stage, hues of empathy and community care dashed throughout.īut amid the show’s tragedies, for colored girls also embraces a levity often missing from depictions of Black womanhood. Gardiner directed a 2019 revival of the show at the Public Theater in New York City.Īs they retell their stories, the women dance and stomp, laugh and cry as individuals, yes, but also as a flock. Rather, for colored girls… is a choreopoem, “a combination of all forms of theater storytelling,” said Leah C Gardiner in a 2019 New York Times interview. The lodestar piece isn’t just a culmination of monologues braided together in theme. To reduce for colored girls to a play is an oft-repeated mistake. That is what is important and empowering part of the show,” said Brown. “These women definitely go through struggles, but they persevere and they move through them. The seven are scattered across various cities, woven together by mutual stories of love, heartbreak, pain and other fixtures of Black womanhood. “Even though the show is over 40 years old, it still speaks to today, and it can still tap into and connect with Black women, but also other people too,” said Brown.Ĭamille A Brown: ‘It’s a Black woman’s voice, and Black women are seeing reflections of themselves.’ Photograph: The Booth Theatreįor colored girls follows a cast of Black women – lady in red, lady in orange, lady in blue, lady in yellow, lady in green, lady in brown and lady in purple. Brown, whom Shange interviewed for her first posthumous work Dance We Do, now leads the show’s first Broadway revival and is excited that audiences get to experience Shange’s timeless work. The most recent run has garnered seven Tony award nominations, including best revival of a play and best direction of a play for Brown.īrown’s connection to for colored girls dates back to childhood, when her mother would repeat the phrase “don’t let anyone take your stuff away,” in reference to a monologue featured in the show by lady in green. More than three decades after its 1976 Broadway run, the first Broadway revival of for colored girls has launched, directed and choreographed by Camille A Brown, the first Black woman to direct and choreograph a Broadway show in 65 years. First conceived in 1974, the play is rightfully revered as one of the most important pieces in theater to date, but also for its unquantifiable influence. For colored girls, as a work, is the answer, a cannon-creating work that blends poetry and movement, along with other storytelling elements, to illuminate the lived experience of Black women. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |