HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — In 1974, a San Francisco-based poet and dancer named Ntozake Shange put pen to paper to describe the pains, struggles and paradoxes of being a woman of color in America. Today, her prose poem/play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf stands as a literary classic that touched so many in its day and has continued to be influential and relevant ever since. Developed in bars, coffee houses and performances spaces in Northern California and New York City, For Colored Girls went on to win Tony, Obie and Outer Circle Awards in 1977, and ran for 747 performances on Broadway. The book of the play has been in print since 1975, and the most recent edition is in its 21st printing. For Colored Girls is taught in high school and colleges, and is a staple of theater classes and college productions.
With the arrival of the feature film For Colored Girls, movie audiences everywhere will be able to experience Shange’s watershed work anew. Adapting the play for the screen, director Tyler Perry has integrated Shange's poetry into a dramatic narrative derived from her tales of love, betrayal, loss, treachery, resilience and sisterhood. The film brings together a star-studded, multi-generational cast of black actresses: Janet Jackson (Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married Too?, Poetic Justice); Loretta Devine (Crash); Kimberly Elise (Tyler Perry's Diary of a Mad Black Woman, The Great Debaters); Macy Gray (Lackawanna Blues); Thandie Newton (Crash); Phylicia Rashad (The Cosby Show); Anika Noni Rose (Dreamgirls); Tessa Thompson (Mississippi Damned); Kerry Washington (the upcoming Night Catches Us); and Whoopi Goldberg (The Color Purple).
"For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf is a brilliant, important work that should have a place in film history," states Perry. "It had been 35 years, and still it hadn't been made into a film."
But the play certainly presented challenges to adapt, given its unorthodox structure, its poetic text and, not least, the reverence it commands as a creative and cultural landmark. Perry did not approach the project lightly.
"This is my tenth film, and it took me nine to feel ready to tackle something like this," he acknowledges. "I was nervous because it's such a powerful, iconic piece and there are so many people who live, eat, breathe and die Colored Girls. I had to be sure I could get it right."
Also see: For Colored Girls Premiere Red Carpet Pictures
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