Monologue Monday: for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf (Shange)

Hello everyone!

We were going to do a Halloween monologue today but in light of Ntozake Shange‘s passing on the 27th, we figured it’d be appropriate to do a monologue from her seminal work for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf. 

She had actually done a book signing on the 23rd. Crazy.

Flyer from African-American Shakespeare Company this year. In author’s possession.

Here is a description of this play from the brave heroes over at Wikipedia:

“Structurally, for colored girls is a series of 20 poems, collectively called a “choreopoem.” Shange’s poetry expresses many struggles and obstacles that African-American women may face throughout their lives and is a representation of sisterhood and coming of age as an African-American woman. The poems are choreographed to music that weaves together interconnected stories. The choreopoem is performed by a cast of seven nameless women only identified by the colors they are assigned. They are the lady in red, lady in orange, lady in yellow, lady in green, lady in blue, lady in brown, and lady in purple. Subjects from rape, abandonment, abortion, and domestic violence are tackled.^[2] By the end of the play them women come together in a circle, symbolizing the unity they have found sharing their stories.”

Western drama originated from poetry so it is quite proper that the play consist of poems.

The play was quite personal to her, as was the title. She had attempted suicide four times.        As for the title she said: “”I was driving the No. 1 Highway in northern California and I was overcome by the appearance of two parallel rainbows. I had a feeling of near death or near catastrophe. Then I drove through the rainbow and I went away. Then I put that together to form the title.”

She used the word “colored” so her grandmother would understand it.

If you want to see the entire show, here is a community college production:

This poem/monologue is entitled sorry – here’s a synopsis:

“In “sorry,” the ladies proclaim that they are tired of hearing apologies and excuses from men. They encourage these men to accept their flaws and be real instead of conjuring up apologies to placate their partners.”

In honor of the late playwright, let’s see what happens when poetry and drama come together.

Many of the actors are attributing the monologue to Tyler Perry’s movie based on the play.

One benefit of the monologue being in a movie is I found enough recordings to finally reach from A-Z! Z is the cutest, by the way.

Let’s see what these brave actors have to offer.

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O (sister of N)

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

X

Y

Z

Join us on Thursday when we’ll join a modern playwright doing her thing from Idaho!

For a complete list of monologues, please check here.