Friday, October 26, 2012

New Route's FOR COLORED GIRLS Is Only One Week Away

It's almost time for the New Route Theatre production of Ntozake Shange's for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf, described as "an affecting and poetic play that explores what it means to be an African-American woman." New Route's for colored girls opens November 2, with Friday and Saturday performances at 7:30 pm and Sunday matinee at 3 pm, through November 11.

New Route has also created a video introduction for the piece, which you can see on Youtube here.

Shange's for colored girls is usually called a "choreopoem," meaning it includes movement and singing to communicate the poetry Shange wrote. Her choreopoem focuses on seven women who "reveal themselves, their lives, loves, hardships, and ultimately their discovery of strength and love" through performance. This work was first performed in a bar outside Berkeley, California, but quickly moved to New York, with Off-Broadway and Broadway productions in 1976. After that, it became something of a phenomenon, with a book, a TV movie and a film called simply For Colored Girls, directed by Tyler Perry and released in 2010.

For New Route, artistic director Don Shandrow and Phil Shaw will co-direct, while Lyndetta Alsberry choreographs. The seven faces of African-American womanhood will be portrayed by Leola Bellamy, Jennifer Cirillo, Melissa James-Shrader, Gabrielle Lott-Rogers, Jennifer Rusk, Claron Sharrieff and Christie Vallela.

All performances will be held in the New Route Theatre inside the YWCA of McLean County located on Hershey Road just north of Empire Street in Bloomington. You may reserve seats by sending an email to new.route.theatre@gmail.com.

For more information, you can visit the Facebook page for this event here.

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