For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf
by Kerry Ann Zamore
Feb. 23
for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf is a 1976 work by Ntozake Shange. It consists of a series of poetic monologues to be accompanied by dance movements and music, a form which Shange coined the word choreopoem to describe. It tells the stories of seven women who have suffered oppression in a racist and sexist society.
As a choreopoem, the piece is a series of 20 separate poems choreographed to music that weaves interconnected stories of love, empowerment, struggle and loss into a complex representation of sisterhood.
The cast consists of seven nameless African-American women only identified by the colors they are assigned. They are the lady in red, lady in orange, lady in yellow, lady in green, lady in blue, lady in brown, and lady in purple. Subjects from rape, abandonment, abortion and domestic violence are tackled.
Shange originally wrote the monologues as separate poems in 1974. Her writing style is idiosyncratic and she often uses vernacular language, unique structure, and unorthodox punctuation to emphasize syncopation. Shange wanted to write for colored girls... in a way that mimicked how real women speak so she could draw her readers' focus to the experience of reading and listening
Casting seven African American women, ages 18 and up and two African American men, ages 30 and up.
Dancing (African/lyrical); singing (any genre, please show range)
Also casting extras, dance ensemble (all races)
Come prepared with a short monologue and prepared for a cold read.
Singers come prepared with a 60-second song to show your range.
Dancers come prepared to show your genre of dance in 60 seconds.
Space Create Interactive Studios, 207 W. Avenue D, Killeen Tx 76541
Send headshots and short bio to Kerry @kzaomore.com
