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In The News
August 7, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
“For Colored Girls…” Opens
in the Edison Theatre Aug. 15
WHAT: “For Colored Girls
Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf”
WHEN:
8 p.m. Aug. 15 and 16; Sept. 5 and 6; 2 p.m. Aug. 17 and Sept.
7
WHERE: Edison Studio Theatre
on the CSUDH campus, 1000 E. Victoria St., Carson, www.csudh.edu/site/VisitUs/campusmap.shtml
COST: $10 at the door
(Carson, CA)— The
California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) Department
of Theatre
Arts and the New African Grove Black Theatre will present a special
summer production of “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered
Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf ” Aug. 15-17 and Sept. 5-7
in the Edison Studio Theatre on campus.
Written by playwright, author, entertainer
and black feminist Ntozake Shange, “For Colored Girls” won an Obie Award
in 1977 and was also nominated for a Tony, Grammy and an Emmy that
year. The play is a series of poems, usually choreographed to music,
which is performed by a cast of women known only by their different
colors. As a whole, the 20 poems, which deal head-on with emotional
topics like abortion, domestic violence, rape and abandonment,
but also love and joy, weave a picture of what it’s like
to be a black woman in today’s society.
The themes in “For Colored Girls” resonate beyond
the black female experience. In the 30 years since it was first
performed Off Broadway, the play has been staged with Latina, Asian,
and African American female casts. The CSUDH cast features an all-black
cast, but director Laura Coleman said that wasn’t by design.
“Yes, it’s for colored girls, but
it’s really
for all women,” said Coleman. “The play is a message
of empowerment. It’s the message of women claiming their
power, taking it back.”
To bring that message home, Coleman
said she wanted to focus on Shange’s words. The CSUDH production
doesn’t include
choreography in the performances; instead Coleman sets the play
in a beauty shop, with the women having conversations with each
other. “I feel it makes the words more accessible to place it in
a familiar setting,” Coleman said.
The seven-member cast features CSU Dominguez Hills students Renea
Myles and Antoinette Rogers, CSUDH alumni Trenzette Mack, Tahasijan
Taylor, Shiniqua Green and Martina Boutte, and CSU Long Beach student
Kasi Yates.
Performances will take place two weekends only, Aug. 15-17 and
Sept. 5-7, with Friday and Saturday shows at 8 p.m, and Sunday
shows at 2 p.m.
Tickets cost $10 and will be sold at the door the day of each
performance.
The 475-seat University Theatre is located on the campus of CSU
Dominguez Hills off Toro Center Drive/Tamcliff Street at Victoria
Street in the city of Carson. Metered parking lots are within walking
distance. Permits are $3 and can be purchased at yellow kiosk machines
near each lot.
For more information, call (310) 243-3588.
About the director: Laura Coleman has a
background in theater and is married to CSUDH theater arts alumnus
Jeffery Wright, who
last season directed “The Colored Museum.” She has
directed one-act plays and smaller non-university productions,
but this is her first time leading a main-stage production. After
working for more than a decade in the nonprofit sector, Coleman
is now a full-time student at CSU Dominguez Hills pursuing a degree
in political science. She anticipates graduating in 2009. She said
she’s enjoying the opportunity to be involved in theater
at the university: “It’s taxing, it’s great,
it’s completely rewarding.”
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---------------------------------------------- About
CSU Dominguez Hills -- California
State University, Dominguez Hills is a highly diverse,
urban university located in the South Bay, primarily
serving the
Los Angeles metropolitan area. The university prides itself
on its outstanding faculty and friendly, student-centered
environment.
Known for excellence in teacher education, nursing, psychology,
business administration, and digital media arts, new degree
programs include computer science, criminal justice,
recreation and leisure
studies, social work, and communication disorders. On campus
is the Home Depot Center, a multi-purpose sports complex
that hosts
world-class soccer, tennis, track and field, lacrosse, and
cycling.
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