By: Candace Sierra/Contributing Writer
“For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf” is a title that captures the attention of any passerby, yet this student-directed production captured more than simple consideration.
Jeannette Galup, a senior at the University, directed the experimental play by Ntozake Shange as part of an independent study course. After two months of preparation, Galup—along with her crew and a troupe of seven actresses, who were only identified by the color of the scarves wrapped around their waists—presented her interpretation of this well-known play last weekend in the Herbert and Nicole Werthem Performing Arts Center’s Black Box Theatre.
“[Galup] really catered to a Miami audience in her arrangement and seemed to be very culturally aware,” said senior Francesca Dabdoub. “[The crew] wanted to show that being colored doesn’t just mean [being] African American; [as] a woman, we all go through the same thing regardless of race and skin color.”
This independent research course is one of the University’s opportunities to delve into theater-directing. Galup heard about the play after a friend mentioned watching the film adaptation and subsequently read the play. The friend strongly recommended it to Galup, feeling it was right up her alley.
Galup immediately felt connected to the experimental work. Michael Yawney, her theater professor, was also an inspiration. “His advice helped complete our project,” said Galup.
Shange’s experimental play is better categorized as a collection of “choreopoems” about the struggles and triumphs faced by African-American women, including herself. The 20 “choreopoems,” often divided among seven women, cover a range of topics including love, rape, abortion, race relations and loss.
Odette Barrientos, a women’s studies and theater major, who starred in the play, felt drawn to these topics and recognized their delicacy. “There [was] a lot of truth that we had a responsibility of communicating,” she said. “[Galup] felt it was the perfect show to end [her] university career.”
“[She is] a very proud Cuban woman,” said actress Julissa Perez, the lady in blue, noting Galup’s insertion of Latin culture into the play.
All seven actresses of various ethnicities displayed incredible strength. Not only did they command the audience’s attention, but they also made the audience feel the words and emotions as their own. Their names and histories were not of importance but, rather, their experiences.
Several scenes certainly possessed the power to move the audience, and Barrientos hoped they would leave “with a new appreciation for women and their trials and tribulations.”
Perez connected with a scene discussing apologies and ending toxic relationships. “It [was] about finally speaking up and doing you. It’s a coming of self, and I think it’s beautiful when any woman finally realizes that about themselves,” she said.
Galup purposely shied away from presenting a purely feminist stance and hoped to express the notion that “we’ve all gone through some struggles, but we’ll survive.”
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