'For Colored Girls' Has Lasting Power

Ntozake Shange


Cast of "For Colored Girls"


Ntozake Shange, (pronounced En-toe-ZAHK-kay SHONG-gay), author of the famed play “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf," was inspired to write the play by a rainbow while driving down Highway 1 in Northern California. At the time Ms Shange was in her mid-20s and had reportedly tried to commit suicide four times. The rainbow gave her inspiration by becoming the colors – the voices – of the unnamed femaile characters in the work. Her grandmother gave her the inspiration for the words "For Colored Girls", as she always told Ntozke that she was such a pretty little colored girl.

"For Colored Girls" was a sensation upon its debut in 1975 and remains a mainstay of theatrical companies across the country -- as well as a popular book for high school students. Ntozake Shange, now 60, calls the work a "choreopoem". It consists of 20 poems, some based on Shange's own experience, plus occasional music, dance and song. The characters are associated with the rainbow and known as "lady in green," "lady in blue," "lady in yellow," and other colors of the spectrum. Currently it is in Atlanta and directed by Jasmine Guy and staring Nicole Ari Parker and Robin Givens among others.

The current edition features a seventh color -- brown -- added to yellow, purple, red, green, blue and orange. Each is also associated with a city across the country: "I'm outside Detroit," one says; "I'm outside Baltimore," says another. In fact, "For Colored Girls" is amazingly flexible. Each actor can appear in different cities. Each story has no specific setting. This makes topics all-inclusive. The topics of "For Colored Girls" are raw and honest. They include losing virginity, needing love, having an abortion, even pressing charges against a rapist who was not a stranger. Ms Shange said her intent was to free the female body and to unearth unspeakable secrets as well as to have nostalgia about wonderful things.

Critics loved the work's originality. It won an Obie Award for best off-Broadway play and also earned Tony, Grammy and Emmy nominations. More than 30 years later, Ms. Shange said she hopes women draw positive emotions from the show and her other works, which includes seven novels, four children's books and several other plays and poems. "I like women in general, women of color in particular, to feel pride and dignity and joy and fullness that we're capable of," she said.

There are no male characters in "For Colored Girls," but men take away something from it, too. “When most men see the play they realize they they know so little about us,” she said. Ms. Shange said that what she looks forward to is men drawing from her work the strength, virility and the comedy of the women they are surrounded by.

Ntozake Shange was born Paulette Williams in Trenton, New Jersey to an upper middle class family. Her father, Paul T. Williams, was an Air Force surgeon and her mother, Eloise Williams, was an educator and a psychiatric social worker. Shange's family had a strong interest in the arts and encouraged her artistic education. Among the guests at their home were Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Chuck Berry, and W. E. B. Du Bois. In 1971 she changed her name. "Ntozake" means "She who comes with her own things" and "Shange" means "she who walks with lions" in Xhosa.

"For Colored Girls" still has staying power. It's headed to Broadway and is under contract for a film next season. The production was filmed for a 1982 episode of "American Playhouse" on PBS; the version included several members of the original New York cast, including Shange. The voices in "For Colored Girls" remain vivid, like the colors of the rainbow. Be sure to check it out if you get a chance, but for sure pick up the book.