For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When The Rainbow Is Enuf

The Center for Multicultural and Gender Studies is proud to have been a co-sponsor of the Texas State Department of Theatre and Dance, Ethnic Theatre Workshop production of for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf, April 17-19, 2004.

The Director

Dr. Sandra M. Mayo is the Director of the Center for Multicultural and Gender Studies and Associate Professor of Theatre at Texas State University-San Marcos. She teaches U.S. Ethnic Studies and Ethnic Theatre Workshop (I & II). She is a former Dean of Arts and Science and Director of Theatre and Fine Arts at St. Philip's College. She has taught English ,Speech, and/or Theatre at several colleges and universities around the country. In Texas, her teaching career has included University of Incarnate Word, University of Texas at San Antonio, and University of Houston. In addition to working as a college administrator and instructor, she has served as a director, producer, theatre historian, critic, and author of numerous articles on the theatre and the arts. She has managed many significant arts iniatives including the San Antonio Symphony Residency and the Music Advancement Program at St. Philip's College. Her publications include the organizing, co-editing, and writing of an Introduction to Fine Arts text used for several years in classes at Incarnate Word University and the editing of a collection of plays by local playwright Sterling Houston. In 2000, she received the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development Award for Leadership Excellence (sponsored by UT Austin). In 1997, she was inducted into the San Antonio Women's Celebration and Hall of Fame. Her contributions to numerous boards include the Association for Theatre in Higher Education, (ATHE), the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, Arts! San Antonio, San Antonio Women's Hall of Fame, and the San Antonio Chapter of 100 Black Women. She has had the honor of serving as the chair of the National Black Theatre Association of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE). She is an active member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Theta Tau Omega Chapter in San Antonio. She is also the faculty advisor for Ebony Players at Texas State University-San Marcos.

The Play

From its conception in California in 1974 to its highly acclaimed critical success at Joseph Papp's Public Theater and on Broadway, the Obie Award-winning for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf has excited, inspired, and transformed audiences all over the country. Passionate and fearless, Shange's words reveal what it is to be of color and female in the twentieth century. First published in 1975 when it was praised by the New Yorker for "encompassing.. every feeling and experience a woman has ever had," for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf will be read and performed for generations to come. "

The Author

BIOGRAPHY: Ntozake Shange (pronounced en-to-za-kay shong-gay), born Paulette Williams, changed her name to Ntozake--she who comes with her own things--and, Shange--she who walks like a lion--in Xhosa, the Zulu language. Shange, the daughter of a former Air Force surgeon (father) and educator and psychiatric social worker (mother), grew up in an upper middle class home in New Jersey and St. Louis. She earned a B.A. cum laude in 1970 from Barnard College in New York and a M.A. in American Studies in 1973 from the University of Southern California. She has taught at California State College, the City College of New York, the University of Houston, Rice University, Yale, Howard, New York University, and the University of Florida.

The play for colored girls garnered numerous awards, among them: an Obie Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, the Audelco Award in 1977. In addition, Shange earned a Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Poetry for Three Pieces (1981); a Guggenheim Fellowship (1981); and, a 1980 Obie Award for her adaptation of Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children. Her achievements throughout her lifetime earned her the title of "Living Legend of Black Theater" by the National Black Theater Festival, as well as two honorary doctorate degrees, and the naming of the official "Ntozake Shange Day" by the city of Houston and the Texas State Legislature.

Ntozake Shange's literary output now includes dozens of celebrated works, including novels, poetry, screenplays, essays and plays that have been translated and distributed globally. Shange's revolutionary artistic style inspires readers and audience members around the world. Her written works are included in over a dozen anthologies in the company of such literary giants as Maya Angelou, Zora Neale Hurston, and Alice Walker.

Through her bold originality and creativity, Shange invented the "choreopoem," and integration of poetry, movement, music, and dance that bridges the literary and theatrical worlds. Her first choreopoem "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuf", is a favorite in the American Theatre repertoire--produced frequently by colleges and universities, as well as professional and amateur theatre groups.

Plays
For colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf (1975)
Spell #7 (1979)
A Photograph: Lovers in Motion (1981)
Boogie Woogie Landscape (1981)
Okra to Greens (1984)
Betsey Brown (1985)
Daddy Says (1989)
The Love Space Demands (1992)
I Live in Music (1994)
Ellington is Not a Street (2002)
Lavendar Lizards and Lilac Landmines: Layla's Dream (2003)
Nomathebu (20003)
Poetry
nappy edges (1978)
Three Pieces (1981)
A Daughter's Geography (1983)
Ridin' the Moon in Texas (1987)
The Love Space Demands (1991)
Novels
Sassafras, Cyrus & Indigo (1982)
Betsey Brown (1985)
Liliane (1994)
If I Can Cook You Know God Can (1998)