FOR COLORED GIRLS WHO HAVE CONSIDERED SUICIDE / WHEN THE RAINBOW IS ENUF
Hollywood, California: The Southern California Theatre Association, 1978. Wraps. Program for the West Coast debut of Shange's landmark choreopoem (an early iteration was developed at the Bacchanal, a bar in Berkeley, in 1974). Arranged and directed by Oz Scott, the Broadway production featured seven women, identified by the color of their costumes, who explore through passionate, visceral poetry the courageous strength of black women. In Shange's words, the work celebrates "our struggle to become all that is forbidden by our environment, all that is forfeited by our gender, all that we have forgotten."
A commercial and critical success, the show opened at Broadway's Booth Theater in September 1976, running for 742 performances and earning Obie, Outer Critics' Circle, and Audelco awards. This production closed in July 1978 and moved to Los Angeles for a nearly four-month run at the Huntington Hartford Theatre in Hollywood with four of the seven original cast members: Alfre Woodard, Trazana Beverley, Aku Kadogo, and Lynn Whitfield. This important moment in late 1970s Black feminist theatre was captured in a series of striking images by the celebrated performing arts photographer Bert Andrews.
Octavo: 22 pp. with numerous photographic illustrations and advertisements. Bound with staples in the original printed paper wrappers. Some mild toning along the extremities; otherwise very good. OCLC locates no holdings. Very good. Item #80136
Price: $250.00