91ֿ’s African Community Theatre will premiere its production of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf, a choreopoem by Ntozake Shange, directed by Terrence Spivey, on April 11 at 7:30 p.m. in the African Community Theatre, Room 230, Ritchie Hall, located at 225 Terrace Drive on the Kent Campus.
This groundbreaking choreopoem – a modern-day classic – was first produced in New York City in 1975 with Henry Street Settlement and Joseph Papp Public Theatre and then made its Broadway debut in 1976. For Colored Girls was later adapted for screenplay by Tyler Perry in 2010. It is a spellbinding collection of vivid prose and free verse narratives about and performed by black women. Twenty poems capturing the brutal, tender and dramatic lives of contemporary black women, For Colored Girls offers a transformative, riveting evening of provocative dance, music and poetry.
Play dates and show times are:
- April 11 and 12 at 7:30 p.m., doors open at 7 p.m.
- April 13 at 2 p.m. (matinee only), doors open at 1:30 p.m.
- April 24 and 25 at 7:30 p.m., doors open at 7 p.m.
- April 26 at 2 p.m. (matinee), doors open at 1:30 p.m.; and 7:30 p.m., doors open at 7 p.m.
- April 27 at 2 p.m. (matinee), doors open at 1:30 p.m.
Tickets are $10 at the door. 91ֿ undergraduate students will be admitted for free. Parking is available at the rear of Ritchie Hall. Additional parking is available at the Kent Student Center visitor lot on Summit Street.
Spivey joined 91ֿ for the 2013-2014 academic year as its director-in-residence. Since 2003, he has been the artistic director of the Karamu House, a historic performing arts center in Cleveland. His work seeks to “educate, inspire and entertain diverse audiences in thought-provoking ways,” he says. Spivey’s full biography is available at www.kent.edu/cas/pas/communityandarts/director.cfm.
Established in 1970, the African Community Theatre brings awareness and appreciation of the experiences of people of African descent as illustrated through theatrical performances. The African Community Theatre welcomes community participation, regardless of gender, sexuality, race, class and/or ethnicity. For more information about the African Community Theatre, visit www.kent.edu/cas/pas/communityandarts/african-community-theater.cfm.