For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf

Written by Ntozake Shange
Directed by Elizabeth Carter

Seven individual stories of women capturing the brutal, tender, and dramatic lives in Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls… offers a transformative, riveting evening of provocative dance, music, and poetry.

“…remarkable new production directed by Elizabeth Carter that bursts, vibrates and sings its stories of loss, joy, pain, strength and most of all, resilience.” —Christine Okon, Theater & Such

“…welcomed revival exalts Shange’s poetry and her messages in a powerful and a well-crafted production.” —Victor Cordell, For All Events

“The support the women show each other on stage is powerful. […] ‘for colored girls’ reminds me that we are queens.” —Tyler Jeffreys, Theatrius

#ForColoredGirlsAASC

Director’s Note

My journey with Ntozake Shange’s words started long ago. At the age of 15, my high school drama teacher handed me a paperback book: it was For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf. “You should do a monologue from this,” he said as he handed over the script with its bright cover and warm brown face. I chose the Lady in Purple. I still can recite the piece 30 years later.

Years later, while working on From Okra to Greens at Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, I met Ntozake. I was awestruck by sitting in a room with someone who was able to speak/write such painful/joyful/raw truth about the experience of being a woman, a black woman. The power of her words still holds true, and is why every black woman I know who has touched this work still has her dog-eared copy of this seminal play.

For Colored Girls… is as current as it was in 1975 when it forever changed theater. We are still experiencing the systemic racism that traps our communities, experiencing domestic and societal violence, and feeling the invisibility makes us have to shout to have our voices heard. But it is also the joy of black girl magic. The feeling of sharing with other black women our beauty, our laughter, our knowing. Our uniqueness. From our ancestral mothers to now it is the journey of black womanhood.

For Colored Girls… is a sistah circle, a ritual we allow ourselves as black women to exorcise our pain, be our whole complicated selves and celebrate our love for one another. Through this we can heal ourselves for ourselves and shout “I found god in myself and I loved her/I loved her fiercely.”

—Elizabeth Carter

Cast

Jan Hunter — Lady in Brown

Jan Hunter is excited to return to the African-American Shakespeare Company stage, having previously performed with them as Jocasta in Oedipus, Lady Teazle in School for Scandal, Mrs. Higgins in Pygmalion, and most recently as the Neighbor “Ms. Ruth” and the Nurse in A Streetcar Named Desire. She has also performed with the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre in their heyday. Jan was born and raised in Los Angeles and was one of the Original Soul Train dancers. She received her B.A. in Drama, M.A. in Education and M.A. in Teacher of the Arts. A newly retired Theatre Educator, she was the Director of the Performing Arts Academy at Skyline High School for 24 years, directing and producing 4 shows a year, escorting students to NYC every year for a Theatre intensive. Jan does dramatic storytelling at a private school in the Bay area for youths. She thanks God for this blessing, and her family and community for their loving support. The Drama Lives!!!

Bobbi Kindred — Lady in Purple

Cierra Green, Bobbi Kindred, Jolinda’s baby, and Storyteller, because there are multiple energetic beings that exist within Them and each must be honored. Storytelling is how they honor the wounds within themself that still gape, and how they invoke the spirit of their ancestors’ tongue when they share communally, and they deeply believe in the power of storytelling to heal the inner child. They have just published their first book, This (Boi)yant Body: Narratives of a Queer Black Boi and the Waters that Carry Them, and are preparing for their fall book tour. This is their first ever major theater production and they are humbled by the opportunity to embody the work of Ntozake Shange’s Lady in Purple, and to work closely with their favorite customer at Trader Joes, Elizabeth Carter.

Brittany Nicole Sims — Lady in Green

Brittany Nicole Sims is an actress, singer and native of the Bay Area from San Leandro, CA, and is thrilled to be working with the African-American Shakespeare Company for the fourth time! Brittany was last seen in Richard III as the Duchess of York, and as Paulina in The Winter’s Tale! She received her B.A. in Theater Arts from Sacramento State University (CSUS). Brittany’s recent works have been with All Terrain Theater, Inferno Theater, Vallejo Shakespeare in the Park, Those Women Productions, The SF Olympians Festival, Playwrights Center of SF, Ubuntu Theater and The Exit Theater. Brittany Sims would like to thank her family and friends for all their love and support, especially her mom who has always told her to never stop reaching for your dreams.

Regina Monique — Lady in Orange

Regina Monique is thrilled to be making her African-American Shakespeare Company debut! A graduate of San Francisco State University’s Theatre Program, other training include CSU Summer Arts: Michael Chekhov Technique, The Voice Actor’s Ultimate Tool Kit, and Acting on Camera. Recent regional theater credits include: Everybody at Cal Shakes (u/s: Usher, God, Understanding, Love); Dry Land at Shotgun Players (Ensemble); A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Pacifica Spindrift Players (Hermia). She gives all glory to God and her family for their support. Check her out at reginamonique.com.

Tiffany Tenille — Lady in Yellow

Tiffany Tenille is proud to be making her African-American Shakespeare Company debut in For Colored Girls. Tiffany is a native of Chicago, where she obtained her BFA in Acting from The Theatre School at DePaul University. She enjoys her successes in film, appearing in the title role in Jezebel, in The Joel McHale Show on Netflix, several media prints; and will soon appear as Lulu in Between Riverside and Crazy at San Jose Stage Company and as Felice in Jazz at Marin Theatre Company. She sends her love and special thanks to her loving family, supporting mentors and dear friends. To stay up to date about her career happenings follow her on Instagram @TiffanyTenille.

Paige Mayes — Lady in Red

Paige Mayes is a dancer, singer, and actress based in the Bay Area from Denver, CO by the way of Arizona. She attended Arizona State University and studied Performing Arts and Dance. Paige also studied at the American Conservatory Theater, where she participated in the Summer Training Congress and the San Francisco Semester. She is truly blessed to be a part of For Colored Girls! Paige had the honor of appearing in the African-American Shakespeare Company’s Cinderella, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and The Colored Museum. She is beyond grateful that AASC grants her the opportunity of storytelling.

Natasha LaGrone — Lady in Blue

Natasha LaGrone is excited to be making her debut with the African-American Shakespeare Company. She hails from Flint, Michigan, and is a proud alumna of Michigan State University (B.A. in Communication) and the American Conservatory Theater’s (A.C.T.) San Francisco Semester. She has been seen recently in productions with the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Company (BATCO) including, I, Too, Sing America, How To Be A White Man, and La Posarela. Natasha has performed with A.C.T. in The Taming of the Shrew, Every 28 Hours, and The Insurgents. She was also spotted in the summer 2018 Feature Film Sorry To Bother You. Natasha is grateful to God for every blessing and to her family for their continued love and support.

Production Team

Director — Elizabeth Carter

Elizabeth Carter has performed with numerous Bay Area theaters including California Shakespeare Theater, San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, Magic Theatre, Word for Word, Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, San Jose Stage, TheatreWorks, and the Aurora Theatre Company. Her favorite roles include Rose in Fences, the Bawd in Pericles, Effie in Dreamgirls, Mistress Ford in Merry Wives of Windsor, and Agnes in Agnes of God. She was in the Aurora Theatre Company production of Trouble in Mind, which won 6 Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards. Elizabeth has been featured in Theatre Bay Area Magazine as someone to “Keep an Eye On”. As an artist, Elizabeth has been a part of the SOTA Theatre Department since 2005. Her teaching career has led her to work with students from of all ages from kindergarten to adult actors, and she has trained teachers in alternative ways to access literature through theater. Elizabeth has spent the last 17 years teaching acting, voice and Shakespeare performance across the Bay Area for companies such as California Shakespeare Theatre, Berkeley Rep, and Brava!

Set Designer — Randy Wong-Westbrooke

Randy Wong-Westbrooke is a scenic designer born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. Driven by their own mixed identities and desire to bring unheard voices from around the world to various audiences, they seek opportunities to work with diverse creative teams to tell relevant, impactful, and intersectional stories. They received their B.F.A. in Scenic Design from Ithaca College in upstate New York.

They have designed the sets for world premieres of: Two Mile Hollow (Ferocious Lotus), Tinderella (Custom Made Theater Co./Faultline), Between Us, Participants, Beneath the Tall Tree (TheatreFIRST), South of Market: The Musical v2 (Marine’s Memorial Theatre), Madame Ho (Eugenie Chan Theater Projects), MacBitch (The Breadbox), Ghost Limb (Brava), and Apocalypse, Please (PianoFight).

Selected Bay Area credits include: The Farm (TheatreFIRST), Cabaret (Contra Costa Civic Theater), The Crucible (Los Altos Stage Company), brownsville song (b-side for tray) (Shotgun Players), The Bacchae: A Communion Rite, Taming of the Shrew (ACT M.F.A. Program), and Avant GardARAMA! (Cutting Ball).

Lighting Designer — Stephanie Anne Johnson

Stephanie Anne Johnson is a second-generation theater practitioner. Her mother Virginia Greene worked with the American Negro Theater in the 1950s. Stephanie has been a lighting designer working locally, nationally, and internationally for over forty years. Locally, she has worked with Cultural Odyssey, Afro Solo, Ubuntu Theatre, TheatreFirst, and many other groups. Stephanie is also a visual artist who has had two one-person shows in San Francisco. She has also written and performed a one-person show entitled Every Twenty One Days: Cancer, Yoga, and Me. Stephanie is a founding professor in the Visual and Public Art Department at Cal State University, Monterey Bay. She is very happy to be working with the African-American Shakespeare Company, and with Elizabeth Carter for the second time. Her work can be seen online at www.lightessencedesign.com.

Costume Designer — Nikki Anderson-Joy

Nikki Anderson-Joy is a costume designer based in Oakland. She graduated from the Academy of Art University in 2014. Having spent a few years assisting costume designers around the Bay Area, she has started designing solo: recent designs including Jitney (Theatre Bay Area Finalist for Best Costume Design) and Cinderella for the African-American Shakespeare Company, This Wide Night for Anton’s Well Theater Company, TheatreFirst’s Between Us, and New Conservatory Theatre Center’s The Mystery of Love & Sex. When not designing, Nikki works as a costume assistant at the San Francisco Opera Costume Shop. Her upcoming design work will be with Ubuntu Theatre Project’s Hamlet (Fall 2018) and Island City Opera’s Little Women (Winter 2019). In her spare time, Nikki loves to illustrate.

Production Manager & Stage Manger — Leontyne Mbele-Mbong

Leontyne Mbele-Mbong is in her second season with the African-American Shakespeare Company as Production Manager, and joins them for the first time as Stage Manager. She is the founder of CogentOAK, a virtual admin business that provides administrative assistance. Prior to starting her own business, Leontyne worked for 10 years at an engineering consultant firm, working her way from temporary receptionist to business development coordinator. The customer service skills she learned in her first job as travel agent fresh out of college, she now puts to use at the American Conservatory Theater box office, and at various theaters across the city where she can be seen working front of house. The over-arching theme of this patchwork is assisting people with just what they need to do what they desire hassle-free—be it seeing a show or working on the aspect of the budding business they love. She even creates websites! Check hers out at www.cogentoak.com

Design Execution — Kate Boyd

Kate Boyd is a scenic and lighting designer and teacher. She recently designed sets for Altar Boyz at Center Rep and Safe House at Aurora Theater Company, and lighting for Love Sick. Other Aurora productions include Mud Blue Sky and Rapture Blister Burn. She is a resident designer at Golden Thread Productions and recently designed both sets and lights for Isfahan Blues. She has also designed for Magic Theatre, Merola Opera, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Company C Ballet, Marin Theatre Company, Theaterworks, and Brava! Kate teaches stagecraft and design Lick-Wilmerding High School, and was a recipient of the Gerbode Design Fellowship.

Sound Designer — Lana Palmer

Lana Palmer is a Canadian-born, San Francisco-based sound designer and composer. Her music and sound design can be heard on over 100 TV shows airing nationally and internationally. Recent credits include Dragon Theatre’s Race, Ubuntu Theater Project’s Topdog/Underdog, Inferno Theatre’s Dracula, and Bread & Butter Theatre’s Red. Upcoming projects include Town Hall Theatre Company’s The Revolutionists and San Francisco State University’s Pericles. She is a proud member of SOCAN and the Dramatists Guild.

Choreographer — Kendra Kimbrough Barnes

Kendra Kimbrough Barnes, MAA, has studied Contemporary, African, Brazilian, Indian, Dunham & Horton Techniques. Kendra has been guest choreographer for San Francisco State University, Dimensions Extensions Youth Performance Ensemble, Move Dance Theater, and Abundant Life Christian Fellowship. Her work as co-choreographer (with Latanya d Tigner) for CalShakes’ Black Odyssey was a finalist for the Theater Bay Area Best Choreography Award. In 1996 she founded the Kendra Kimbrough Dance Ensemble. Most recent works include notable dance-dramas: Home Is That Way?, with the mentorship of Rhodessa Jones, and In The Meantime, and Angst in collaboration with Delina Patrice Brooks. A long time community and adjunct dance instructor, she currently teaches dance at UC Berkeley and freelances as an administrator, teacher, and choreographer. She has been an artist in residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts and CounterPULSE/SF, and her work has received funding from several prominent foundations. Kendra Barnes is co-founder/director of the Black Choreographers Festival.