NEW YORK (March 28, 2022) – The highly anticipated Broadway revival ofNtozake Shange’sgroundbreakingfor colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf,directed andchoreographed by Tony Award nomineeCamille A. Brown(Once On This Island, Choir Boy, co-director and choreographer ofFire Shut Up in My Bones)has announced the full cast and creative team.
Joining the cast areAmara Grandersonas Lady in Orange,Tendayi Kuumbaas Lady in Brown,Kenita R. Milleras Lady in Red,Okwui Okpokwasilias Lady in Green,Stacey Sargeantas Lady in Blue,Alexandria Wailesas Lady in Purple, andD. Woodsas Lady in Yellow.
The show marksCamille A. Brown’sdirectorial debut on Broadway. Brown, who served as choreographer on the Lucille Lortel, Outer Critics Circle, and Drama Desk award-winning 2019 production of the play atThe Public Theater, will also continue in her role as choreographer on Broadway, making her the first Black woman to serve as both director and choreographer on a Broadway production in more than 65 years.
Performances begin on Friday, April 1, 2022 at the Booth Theatre (222 West 45thStreet) and open on Wednesday, April 20, 2022. Tickets are now on sale for the 20-week limited engagementatwww.telecharge.com.
for colored girls…will feature set design byMyung Hee Cho, costume design bySarafina Bush, lighting design byJiyoun Chang, sound design byJustin Ellington, projection design byAaron Rhyne, and hair design byCookie Jordan. The show will feature original music byMartha RedboneandAaron Whitby.Deah Love Harriottserves as the Music Director andTia Allenis the Music Coordinator. The Production Stage Manager isBernita Robinsonand the Assistant Stage Manager islark hackshaw. The production features casting byErica Jensen/Calleri Jensen Davisand production supervision by Hudson Theatricals.Christina Franklinserves as the Associate Director andMaleek Washingtonserves as Associate Choreographer.
Join the circle as seven women share their stories and find strength in each other’s humor and passion through a fusion of poetry, dance, music, and song that explodes off the stage and resonates with all. It’s time for joy. It’s time for sisterhood. It’s timefor colored girls.
Black girl magic is reborn. Ntozake Shange’sfor colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enufis the “landmark of American theater”(The New York Times) that blazed a trail for generations to come. Now, this celebration of the power of Black womanhood returns to Broadway for the first time, reinvented, directed, and choreographed by “a true superstar of theater and dance” (NPR), Tony AwardÒnomineeCamille A. Brown.And her vision is as fearlessly new as it is fiercely now.
For more information, visitwww.forcoloredgirlsbway.com.
Follow onFacebook,InstagramandTwitterfor updates.
BIOGRAPHIES
AMARA GRANDERSON(Lady in Orange) is a Brooklyn native thrilled to be making her Broadway debut in “for colored girls…” Training: MFA UC San Diego, BA Oberlin College. Selected Theater Credits:Fly(La Jolla Playhouse),Romeo ‘n’ Juliet(Classical Theatre of Harlem),Stick Fly(Intiman Theater). Select Film/TV: Ford commercial (dir. ChloéZhao). She is eternally grateful to her family, friends, & Ms. Caroline for getting her to this impactful milestone.
TENDAYI KUUMBA(Lady in Brown) International dancer, choreographer, singer, & songwriter, Tendayi Kuumba is a graduate of North Atlanta High School of Performing Arts and Spelman College. Recently, Tendayi performed as a background vocalist/dancer & original cast member of Specal Tony Award WinningDavid Byrne’s America Utopiaon Broadway as well as its World Tour since 2018 and HBO Film adaptation directed by Spike Lee.
Former touring company member of Urban Bush Women, Tendayi is also longtime collaborator with partner Greg Purnell under the alias UFLYMOTHERSHIP with sonic/choreographic projects Heroiné, Incog-negro, U.F.O: Unidentified Fly Objects, U.F.O: Stardust Melanin, & U.F.O “The Mixtape”. Other solo/collaborative choreographic works have been featured at Gibney Dance, in partnership with Stephen Petronio Residency Center, Live Ideas: Drexciya Redux – AnAfrofuturistCabaret at NYLA, Movement Researches’ Spring Festival, Czech Republic of NY, “ Prague Effects” Residency, Dancespace “Collective Terrains ” platform, Spelman Colleges’ “Toni Cade Bambara Scholar- Activism Conference, Harlem Stage E-Moves 2019, Hi-ARTS: Critical Breaks Residency, BRICLab, Dance Mission Theaters’ D.I.R.T Festival 2021 & Park Armory’s 100 Women/100 Years and Lincoln Center’s Restart Stages.
She’s worked with choreographers T. Lang, Marjani Forte’-Saunders (7NMS), ASÉ Dance Theater Collective, Nathan Trice/ Rituals Performance Project “StrangeLove”, Jim Findlay’s “Electric Lucifer” workshop & Philadelphia Operas’We Shall Not be Moveddirected by Bill T. Jones. She continues to build her pedagogy as a teaching artist occasionally at NYU Tisch and as a B.O.L.D Facilitator for Urban Bush Women.Currently commissioned by the Petronio Residency Center to create upcoming UFLYMOTHERSHIP work for spring 2022, she gives thanks and blessings for life, love, breath, and the pursuit of happiness through creativity.
KENITAR. MILLER(Lady in Red) B’way:Come From Away(Hannah),Once On This Island(Mama Euralie/ Grammy Nom.),The Color Purple(Celie),Xanadu(Erato/Kira understudy)Off Broadway:Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin(Granny) Encores!,Bella: an American Tall Tale(Miss Cabbagestalk/Mama), Merrily We Roll Along (Encores!),Wild Party(Encores!),Langston In Harlem(Zora Neale Hurston -Drama Desk Nom./Audelco Award),Working(Drama Desk Award),Avenue Q.Regional:Parade(Minnie McKnight, Angela/2014 Barrymore Award Outstanding Featured Actress),Once On This Island(Timoune/ Mama Euralie),Ragtime(Sarah)Film/TV:Tick Tick Boom, “Sesame Street,” “Bull,” “Hostages,” “Blacklist.”
OKWUI OKPOKWASILI(Lady in Green) is a Brooklyn based performer, choreographer and writer creating multidisciplinary performance pieces. The child of immigrants from Nigeria, Okpokwasili was born and raised in the Bronx, and the histories of these places and the girls and women who inhabit them feature prominently in much of her work. Her highly experimental productions include “Bessie” Award winningPent-Up: A Revenge Dance,“Bessie” Award winningBronx Gothic, Bronx Gothic: The Oval, Poor People’s TV Room, Poor People’s TV Room Solo, When I Return Who Will Receive Me,andAdaku’s Revolt.Recent works include installations in the exhibitions:“Grief and Grievance, Art and Mourning in America”at the New Museum,“Witchhunt”at The Hammer Museum in LA, “Sex Ecologies”at Kunsthall Trondheim in Norway. Commissions include the performance“On the way, undone”at the Highline in NYC and at Weeksville Heritage Center in Brooklyn as part of FIAF’s Crossing the Line Festival, the film“Returning”for Danspace Project, and the site specific performances“Swallow the Moon”at Jacob’s Pillow.
She has worked with film and theater directors: Carrie Mae Weems, Ralph Lemon, Arthur Jafa, Terence Nance, Josephine Decker, Mika Rottenberg, Mahyad Tousi, Charlotte Brathwaite, Jim Findlay, Annie Dorsen and Peter Born. She has worked at the newly re-invisioned Flea Theater, the Public, TFANA, Soho Rep, HERE Arts Center, and the Kitchen.
Okpokwasili’s residencies and awards include The French American Cultural Exchange (2006-2007); Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography Choreographic Fellowship (2012); Baryshnikov Arts Center Artist-in-Residence (2013); New York Live Arts Studio Series (2013); Under Construction at the Park Avenue Armory (2013); New York Foundation for the Arts’ Fellowship in Choreography (2013); Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Extended Life Program (2014-17, 2019-20); ICPP at Wesleyan (2015), The Foundation for Contemporary Arts’ artist grant in dance (2014); BRIClab (2015); Columbia University (2015), the Rauschenberg Residency (2015), UNC Chapel Hill CPA Fellow. Okpokwasili was the 2015-2017 Randjelovic/Stryker New York Live Arts Resident Commissioned Artist (RCA.) She was a 2018 Princeton University Hodder Fellow, a 2018 Herb Alpert Awardee in Dance, an Antonyo Awardee, a 2018 Doris Duke Artist Awardee, and a 2018 MacArthur Fellow. She will be the inaugural artist for the Kravis Studio Residency program at MOMA.
STACEY SARGEANT(Lady In Blue) The child of a Trinidadian father and Tobagonian mother, Stacey Sargeant was born & raised in the East New York section of Brooklyn. She is a graduate of LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and the Performing Arts and received her BFA in musical theater from Syracuse University. Stacey can currentlybe seen in the critically acclaimed Netflix film,The Forty Year Old Version, and in thethird season of Nat Geo’s, “Genius: Aretha” as Dinah Washington.She most recently guest starred and recurred on CBS’“Blue Bloods”and“Bull,” respectively.
Sargeant received Drama Desk, Drama League, and Lucille Lortel nominations for her work in the NYTimes Critic’s Pick,Rags Parkland Sings the Songs of the Futureat Ars Nova. She is the recipient of the South Korea Daegu International Musical Festival’s Best Supporting Actress Award, as well as New York Musical Theatre Festival’s Outstanding Individual Performance Award. In addition, her filmmaking debut,Though I’m Not Perfect, a documentary short about the physical and psychological dangers of the ballet world to young girls, won the Honolulu Film Award for Best Educational Film.
Credits include: Film:Come Sunday, Top Five,Obvious Child; TV: “Blue Bloods,” “Bull,” “Elementary,” “The Blacklist,” “Gossip Girl,” “Glee,” “Law & Order: SVU;” Theater:Nantucket Sleigh Ride(Lincoln Center Theater),hom*os, Or Everyone in America(Labyrinth),Two Gentlemen of Veronaand the all-femaleThe Taming of the Shrew(Delacorte Theatre),Eclipsed(Public Theater, Curran, Yale Rep,McCarterTheatre(workshop)),Our Lady of Kibeho and Big Love(Signature Theatre),Legally Blonde(1st Nat’l Tour).
ALEXANDRIA WAILES(Lady in Purple)Alexandria Wailes (she/her)received a 2020 Obie Citation for Sustained Excellence as an Artist and Advocate and a Lortel nomination for Outstanding Featured Actress in a PlayFor Colored Girls… at The Public. Broadway: Deaf West’sSpringAwakening,BigRiver(Tony Honoree for Ensemble). Off Broadway: Playwright Horizon’sI Was Most Alive with You,A Kind Of Alaska,Film: ‘The Hyperglot’; TV: “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” “High Maintenance,” “Little America,” “Nurse Jackie.”
Alexandria is an actor, director, dancer, choreographer, and director of artistic sign language. She has worked on stage, in front of the camera and behind the scenes on numerous on and off Broadway and regional theatres, television and film. She worked with Deaf West Theatre, Mixed Blood Theatre, Playwrights Horizon, The Public, Pasadena Playhouse, City Center NY, Ars Nova and more. As director of artistic sign language, she worked on the revival of Broadway’sChildren of a Lesser GodandKing Lear; This Close S.1 & 2, Quantico S.3, A Quiet Place 1 & 2, Wonderstruck and 2021’s Sundance Film Festival darling,CODA. Over the years she has worked as an advisor for ASL theatre interpreted teams for on and off Broadway with Hands On and TDF, as a teaching artist bringing theatre into classrooms, and is an educator at several museums in NYC — notably the Whitney Museum, The Jewish Museum, and the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. She danced and performed with the Heidi Latsky Dance company. She is a co-founder ofBHo5.organd a member of the Forest of Arden company.
Ms. Wailes has spent many years advocating for Deaf and disability rights within the performing arts. She currently serves on the Dance/NYC disability taskforce. She received a Tony Honoree for Ensemble in the Deaf West revival of Big River along with numerous nominations and accolades. A proud member of AEA, SAG-AFTRA & the SDC.
D. WOODS(Lady in Yellow)is a multi-hyphenate performing artist who excels in all facets of entertainment. Prior to her chart topping and multi-platinum success with the pop/R&B recording group Danity Kane, she trained at Tri-Cities High School for Visual and Performing Arts and the Freddie Hendricks Youth Ensemble of Atlanta (YEA). She continued her studies at The Ailey School, trained at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and graduated from The Gallatin School of Individualized Study.
She is the Founder of Woodgrane Entertainment and has been consecutively recognized as a Grammy Nomination contender. She has performed multiple roles in the Off-Broadway run of Ntozake Shange’s “for colored girls…” at The Public Theater, Christopher Green’s“Prurience”at The Guggenheim Museum and her semi-autobiographical play “Trouble In Paradise”. Additional credits include Patrick Ian Polk’s acclaimed film “Blackbird” and the AllBLK series “Stuck With You”. D.Woods is grateful for making her Broadway debut. Follow @yagirldwoods on all social media.
CAMILLE A. BROWN(Director/Choreographer) is a prolific Black female director/choreographer, who has received numerous honors including a Guggenheim Award, Bessie Award, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award, Doris Duke Artist Award, United States Artists Award, two Audelco Awards, five Princess Grace Awards, and a New York City Center Award. She has received a Tony nomination, three Drama Desk nominations, three Lortel nominations and an Obie award for her work in theater. She is an Emerson Collective fellow, a TED fellow and the recipient of a Ford Foundation Art of Change Fellowship. Brown is the 2021 Distinguished Artist, presented by The International Society for the Performing Arts.
Broadway and off-Broadway credits include:Choir Boy,Once On This Island,Toni Stone, A Streetcar Named Desire, Much Ado About Nothing, for colored girls…Film/Television: Academy Award-winningMa Rainey’s Black Bottom,Emmy Award-winning“Jesus Christ Superstar Live.”Ms. Brown choreographed the critically acclaimedPorgy and Bessfor The Metropolitan Opera and this September became the first Black woman director for the main stage at the MET withFire Shut Up In My Bones.Brown is the founder andArtistic Director of Camille A. Brown & Dancers.
SARAFINA BUSH(Costume Designer) Broadway:For Colored Girls…, Pass Over. Off-Broadway:Heroes of the Fourth Turning(Obie Award: Playwrights Horizons),Plot Points, Pass Over (LCT3),Broadway Bounty Hunter(Greenwich House). Regional:Afterwords(5thAvenue),Life After(Goodman Theatre),Nina Simone: Four Women(Berkshire Theatre Group),Slow Food(Geva Theatre),Cry It OutandThe Royale(Kitchen Theatre Company),Not MedeaandGrace, or The Art of Climbing(Art House Productions). Education: BA, Adelphi University.
JIYOUN CHANG(Lighting Designer)Credits:Slave Play(Nominations for Tony, Drama Desk, Henry Hewes, Broadway),Marry Wives(Delacorte Theatre),Letters of Suresh(2nd Stage),Bina’s Six Apples(Lloyd Suh, Children’s Theatre Company),The Chinese Lady(Long Wharf Theatre, The Public),ForColored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf(The Public),Marys Seacole(Henry Hewes Nom, LCT3).More credits at 2nd Stage, Roundabout, ATC, NYTW, BAM(ObieAward), MCC, Signature, Guggenheim, Berkeley Rep, Cal Shakes (TBA Nom), Guthrie,The Old Globe, OSF(Falstaff Award), Studio Theatre. Special thanks to David and Eva.
MYUNG HEE CHO(Scenic Designer) is a set and costume designer for theater, opera, dance and other special productions. She designed the set forfor the Colored Girls Who Considered Suicide…at The Public;Aubergine&Sheepdogat SCR;Black Super Hero Magic Mamaat Geffen Playhouse; set and costumes forGolden Fairytale Fanfare, the opening show at the new Shanghai Disney Resort;The Thieving Magpieat Glimmerglass Opera;The Marriage of Figaroat Washington National Opera and the set design forTrojan Women, a new Korean opera at the National Theater of Korea. Her current projects include the set design forTrans Scriptsat American Repertory Theater andThe Body of the Worldat Manhattan Theater Club.
Cho has designed many premieres including the musicalStuck Elevatorat American Conservatory Theater; the Off-Broadway production and North American national tour ofWIT; The Public Theater production and North American national tour ofLackawanna Blues;Black Odysseyat Denver Center Theater;Emotional Creatureby Eve Ensler at The Linney Theatre in New York, Berkeley Repertory Theatre and The Market Theatre, Johannesburg;Extraordinary Chambers at Geffen Playhouse;36 Viewsat the Berkeley Repertory Theater and The Public;Awakingfor Singapore Theatre Festival;The National Broadway Company, TheaterWorks, Singapore;Yellow Facefor Mark Taper Forum and The Public Theater;System WonderlandandThe Piano Teacherat South Coast Repertory;Citizen 13559at the Kennedy Center;The Golden Mickeysfor Disney Creative Entertainment/Hong Kong;Open Windowfor Pasadena Playhouse and Deaf West Theatre; andFlightandDistant Shoreat Center Theatre Group/Kirk Douglas Theatre.
Other selected credits includeMiss Julieat Geffen Playhouse;The Magic Fluteat the Canadian Opera Company;The Good Person of Szechuanat the Landestheater Linz, in Linz, Austria; andLe nozze di Figaroat the Chicago Opera Theater.
Cho is Professor of Stage Design at UCLA. In 1996, Cho received a Princess Grace Award and was an artist-in-residence at The Public Theater/NYSF. She is a graduate of Cooper Union and Yale School of Drama.
JUSTIN ELLINGTON(Sound Designer)is anaward winningcomposer and sound designer whose work has been featured in film, commercial radio and on stages nationally and internationally on Broadway and off. Ellington has received OBIE Awards,anAudelco Award,and is the proud recipient of a Henry Hewes Design Award for his work in the theater. Broadway credits include:Pass Over, Clyde’s, and Other Desert Cities. Off-Broadway credits include:Tambo and Bones,Heroes of the Fourth Turning(Playwrights Horizons);The Rolling Stone, Pass Over, Pipeline(Lincoln Center);Mrs. Murray’s Menagerie(ArsNova);The House That Will Not Stand, Fetch Clay Make Man(New York Theatre Workshop);Merchant of Venice,He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box, The Winter’s Tale(Theatre for a New Audience). Additional theatersinclude:Steppenwolf, Goodman Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, La Jolla Playhouse, Huntington Stage, Alliance Theater, Guthrie, The Stratford Festival (Canada), The Royal Shakespeare Company (UK), and The Old Vic (UK).Mr. Ellington has also been awarded by The American Society of Composers and Publishersalong with The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences for his composition work in the recording industry. He has also received a CinemaInIndustry Award for his soundtrack to the MOVE ACT FREE exhibit in the National Museum for Human and Civil Rights (Atlanta, Georgia).
DEAH LOVE HARRIOTT(Music Director) Raised as a Cornhusker in Lincoln, Nebraska from age 2, Deah Love Harriott is a native of Buffalo, NY. A classically trained musician and pianist from the age of three, Deah was later heralded as fostering an appreciation for cultural music throughout the state of Nebraska, Ms. Harriott is the recipient of the prestigious Mayor’s Art Award, Cultural Celebration (Nebraska). Hailed as one of the youngest artists to receive a grant from the Nebraska Arts Council, Ms. Harriott toured throughout the Midwest with her gospel group Deah Harriott & Images. She was most recently an honoree and recipient of the Concerned Women of Brooklyn Inc.’s Outstanding Leadership Award where she was recognized for her contributions to the community of Brooklyn, NY. Deah Love was also recognized by her alma mater, Nebraska Wesleyan University with the Outstanding Music Alumni Award. Currently a proud resident of New York, NY, Deah is the Minister of Worship & Fine Arts at Bethany Baptist Church in Brooklyn, a traveling vocalist, adjudicator and educator, specializing in voice, piano and organ (Hammond and pipe), with focuses in classical, gospel, jazz, and r&b.
Some of Deah’s most memorable accomplishments: the music director for the award winning off-Broadway revival of Ntozake Shange’s “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Isn’t Enuf,” (The Public Theater) and also music directing a 75-plus person cast for the Tony Award winning musical “The Wiz,” (LCP). The studio project “Sacrifice,” by gospel music group Deah L. Harriott & Images is one of many projects which she has written, produced and contributed to. The project is currently available on all social media projects. She was also the music director and pianist for the award winning off-broadway production, “Marie and Rosetta” (Atlantic Theater), and performing keys and vocals with award-winning Jon Batiste.
COOKIE JORDAN(Hair Designer) has designed 15 Broadway shows, including :Fela,Slave Play, Choir Boy,The Cher Show,Once On This Island,Sunday in the Park with George,In Transit,Eclipsed,Side Show,After Midnight,Fela,A View From the BridgeandSouth Pacific. Off-Broadway:All the Natalie Portmans,Girls,Fefu and Her Friends,Aint No Mo,Fairview,Toni Stone,If Pretty Hurts,The Secret Life of Bees,Boseman and Lena, Fabulation,Our Lady of 121st Street,In the Blood,Daddy,Herculesin the Park. Television: Make up forThe Wiz Live.
Cookie has been nominated for three Drama Desk Awards, one Emmy award, received two Obie Awards and The Henry Hewes Design Award.
AARON RHYNE(Projection Designer) Designs include BROADWAY:The Sound Inside(Outer Critics Circle Award),Anastasia(Outer Critics Circle Award, Drama Desk Award),A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder(Drama Desk Award),Bonnie and Clyde.OFF BROADWAY:The Way She Spoke(Audible),This Ain’t No Disco(Atlantic),Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey(Westside),Bootycandy(Playwrights Horizons),Appropriate(Signature),Water By the Spoonful,Lonely, I’m Not, The Blue Flower,andAll New People(Second Stage),Wild With Happy(The Public, Drama Desk Nomination). TOURS:Hasan Minhaj: The King’s Jester. OPERA:The Thirteenth Child(Santa Fe Opera),The Ghosts of Versailles(LA Opera),La Traviata(Wolftrap),Florencia en el Amazonas(Florida Grand, Opera Colorado, Utah Opera), DISNEY:Frozen(Disneyland),Beauty and the Beast,Tangled, Frozen, Aladdin(Disney Cruise Lines) REGIONAL: Alley, Arena Stage, Asolo Rep, Bard Summerscape, Bay Street, Berkley Rep, Broadway in Chicago, Ford’s Theatre, Geffen Playhouse, Hartford Stage, Huntington Theatre Company, La Jolla Playhouse, Maltz-Jupiter, New York Stage and Film, The Old Globe, Theatre Aspen, TUTS, Williamstown, Shakespeare Theatre.www.aaronrhyne.com@aaronrhynedesigns
REDBONE AND WHITBY(Original Music By) are the 2020 Drama Desk Award recipients for Outstanding Music in a Play and the 2020 Audelco Award recipient for Outstanding Composer of Original Music and Score for Public Theater revival“for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf”by Ntozake Shange. Their recent works and song contributions includeBone Hill: The Concert, commissioned by Joe’s Pub/Public Theater, NEFA. NPN, Lincoln Center.“Stars”– NY Theater Workshop- Jim Nicola,“Primer for a Failed Superpower”, Rachel Chavkin, andBlack Mountain Women, currently in development at The Public Theater.
MARTHA REDBONEis a vocalist/songwriter/composer/educator. She is known for her music gumbo of folk, blues and gospel from her childhood in Harlan County, Kentucky infused with the eclectic grit of pre-gentrified Brooklyn. With songs and storytelling that share her life experience as an Afro-Indigenous woman and mother navigating in the new millennium, Redbone gives voice to issues of social justice, bridging traditions, connecting cultures, celebrating the human spirit. Redbone’s recordings, touring and cultural preservation workshops are a partnership she shares with longtime collaborator/husband Aaron Whitby.AARON WHITBYis a London-born pianist/composer/producer. Whitby has recorded and/or performed with George Clinton, Luther Vandross, Natalie Cole, Randy Brecker, Lisa Fischer, David Amram and more.
# # #
