Poetry in motion

Captivating, exciting and beautiful: these are all adjectives that can be used to describe Ntozake Shange's "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf." This living, breathing piece of theatrical art has received several awards, including a Tony, and is widely acclaimed as one of the most original plays in years. However, if you are looking for theatre that follows the traditional guidelines for dramatic writing, you will not find it here. "Colored Girls" has no clear plot and has very little to offer in character development. Despite this, its lyrical poetry instantly grabs the audience's attention and refuses to let it go until the end. Although it lacks a traditional plot, its narrative recounts the life experiences of six women who are identified by the color of their clothing: Lady in Red (Richelle Few), Lady in Blue (Lakeisha Williams), Lady in Brown (Juanita Dandridge), Lady in Yellow (Ashton Carr), Lady in Green (Javelle Johnson) and Lady in Purple (Amber Jones), who represent African-American women from all walks of life. Each of these women has a completely different perspective on their life experiences. For instance, in the poem "Graduation Nite," Lady in Yellow, while losing her virginity, says that she had full control over everything about the event, which makes her feel great and powerful. But in "Somebody Almost Walked Off Wid Alla My Stuff," Lady in Green rants about a man, who in her mind had tried to change her personality so much that when he left her, she felt that he was walking away with her soul. Many of these poems address such topics as rape, violence and abortion, which are things most people try to keep out of their minds. Each poem is unique and profound, even if poems in the "No More Love Poems" series were a little preachy. However, these are minor complaints and should not dissuade someone from seeing this production. Director Elizabeth Colas made an interesting decision by including men in the play. When this play is usually performed, it only has the "rainbow women," but to broaden the audience appeal and to make the play even more compelling, she casted Hai Dang, Jibreel Ahmad and Alfred Pierce as the various men in the women's lives. And though the men do not have much dialogue, they personify everything the women hate. This production was brought to life through fantastic acting and great production values. Lakeisha Williams' bubbly personality showcased the joy of Lady in Blue. Amber Jones dazzled the audience with her energy as Lady in Purple. Lady in Green's fear and wrath were aptly portrayed by Javelle Johnson. And finally, Alfred Pierce, who played Beau Willie, was flawless as a psychologically disturbed father and abusive husband; traits that caused the audience to actually boo him by the end of the show. The set design by Tiffany Barnhardt was simple enough to give attention to the actors, but allowed for some elaborate special effects with the use of translucent gold backdrops. The lighting by Zack Blanchard gave the impression of concrete locations without the use of much scenery. The costume design by Whitney Williamson gave each actor a distinct look that showed off parts of the characters that were often not revealed in the dialogue. And Pamela Sears' choreography helped make the production more artistic and helped the audience have fun with characters.