The highly anticipated Broadway revival of Ntozake Shange’s groundbreaking for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf, directed and choreographed by Tony Award nominee Camille A. Brown (Once On This Island, Choir Boy, co-director and choreographer of Fire Shut Up in My Bones) has announced the full cast and creative team.
Joining the cast are Amara Granderson as Lady in Orange, Tendayi Kuumba as Lady in Brown, Kenita R. Miller as Lady in Red, Okwui Okpokwasili as Lady in Green, Stacey Sargeant as Lady in Blue, Alexandria Wailes as Lady in Purple, and D. Woods as Lady in Yellow.
The show marks Camille A. Brown’s directorial 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 at The 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 45th Street) and open on Wednesday, April 20, 2022. Tickets are now on sale for the 20-week limited engagement at www.telecharge.com.
for colored girls… will feature set design by Myung Hee Cho, costume design by Sarafina Bush, lighting design by Jiyoun Chang, sound design by Justin Ellington, projection design by Aaron Rhyne, and hair design by Cookie Jordan. The show will feature original music by Martha Redbone and Aaron Whitby. Deah Love Harriott serves as the Music Director and Tia Allen is the Music Coordinator. The Production Stage Manager is Bernita Robinson and the Assistant Stage Manager is lark hackshaw. The production features casting by Erica Jensen/Calleri Jensen Davis and production supervision by Hudson Theatricals. Christina Franklin serves as the Associate Director and Maleek Washington serves 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 time for colored girls.
Black girl magic is reborn. Ntozake Shange’s for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf is 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 AwardÒ nominee Camille A. Brown. And her vision is as fearlessly new as it is fiercely now.
CAST 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. Chloé Zhao). 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 Winning David Byrne’s America Utopia on 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 – An Afrofuturist Cabaret 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 Moved directed 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.
KENITA R. 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 winning Pent-Up: A Revenge Dance, “Bessie” Award winning Bronx Gothic, Bronx Gothic: The Oval, Poor People’s TV Room, Poor People’s TV Room Solo, When I Return Who Will Receive Me, and Adaku’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 currently be seen in the critically acclaimed Netflix film, The Forty Year Old Version, and in the third 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 Future at 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), Homos, Or Everyone in America (Labyrinth), Two Gentlemen of Verona and the all-female The Taming of the Shrew (Delacorte Theatre), Eclipsed (Public Theater, Curran, Yale Rep, McCarter Theatre (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 Play For Colored Girls… at The Public. Broadway: Deaf West’s Spring Awakening, Big River (Tony Honoree for Ensemble). Off Broadway: Playwright Horizon’s I 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’s Children of a Lesser God and King 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 of BHo5.org and 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-winning Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Emmy Award-winning “Jesus Christ Superstar Live.” Ms. Brown choreographed the critically acclaimed Porgy and Bess for The Metropolitan Opera and this September became the first Black woman director for the main stage at the MET with Fire Shut Up In My Bones. Brown is the founder and Artistic Director of Camille A. Brown & Dancers.
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