First World's Stage Becomes Home For Colored Girls

PHILADELPHIA - March 14, 2013 - PRLog -- Friday, Saturday, and Sunday March 22 through April 7, 2013, on stage as originally intended, Zuhairah McGill directs Ntozake Shange’s "for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf" on the welcoming and deserving stage of First World Theatre Ensemble. As the Community Education Center (CEC)’s 2012-13/2013-14 resident theatre company, For Colored Girls will be performed in the Meeting House Theater located 3500 Lancaster Avenue in Philadelphia, PA 8:00 pm Fridays and Saturdays and 3:00 pm on Sundays. Friday, March 22, 2013 is Opening Night and Sunday, April 7th is Talk Back Sunday, an interactive discussion with panel and cast immediately performance.

An African American classic and landmark in American theatre, Ntozoke Shange’s "for colored girl who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf" illuminates the tales of women in all the shades of life’s experiences. A powerful ensemble cast bears the passion, drama, comedy and pain that paint the visions, confessions and revelations of these women known only by the various colors of the rainbow. Though Shange at times reveals some ugly truths about abuse, relationships, and domestic violence, she does not allow the darkness to go unchallenged. Instead she gifts us through poetry and dance, reminding us that women bear a complicated love and invites you to transform, cross the rainbow and experience the light that exists on the other side.

Zuhairah McGill, Founder and Executive Artistic Director of First World Theatre Ensemble shares, “The struggles in For Colored Girls are as relevant today for young women as they were in the late '70s when this play first hit the stage. After realizing through my daughter’s friends that most women 35 and under whose only experience of the play was from the 2010  theatrical film, lacked an understanding of the history and impact of this work that has enraptured audiences for decades now. As a producer and director and in celebration of women, I felt compelled to bring light to the transforming and transcending power of this play."

The powerful ensemble cast stars Baset, Tiffany Bacon, Meryl Lynn Brown, Tene Fletcher, TS Hawkins, Nicole Stacie and Deanna Wright. "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf," published in 1975, is a Tony Award nominated experimental play, choreopeom, that has been performed Off-Broadway and on Broadway, adapted as a book, and a television and theatrical film.

Having directed over 20 productions, this is Zuhairah’s second directorial of "For Colored Girls..." She continues to build her directorial legacy, not only on First World’s stage, but throughout the Greater Philadelphia region and beyond including her latest work “He Called Me Rib” by Parenthysis Erica G. As part of First World’s WHO’s ON FIRST Monday Night Reading Series, Zuhairah will be direct the readings of Glenn Alan’s “Blues For Lula Mae Jenkins” April 1st and Charron Monaye’s “Get Out Of our Own Way” on April 29th. Also in April, she will direct the stage production of Charron Monaye’s, “Living Your Life” in North Carolina and Joseph P. Blake’s “Muralista” June 7 through June 22, 2013 at First World Theatre.

This production is made possible in partnership with the CEC. First World Theatre Ensemble, founded 2001 by Zuhairah McGill, is the 2012-13 / 2013-14 resident theatre company of the Community Education Center (CEC). As the Community Education Center (CEC) was founded by local community members to promote shared experiences and nurture fellowship among its varied neighborhoods across cultural and economic differences, through selected classic and original works First World leverages theatre as a powerful platform for social change and nurtures public conversations around critically important social issues that impact all of our lives. First World continues its commitment to achieve artistic excellence in professional theatre and bring quality to the stage as in the days of the Negro Ensemble.

For additional information contact First World Theatre Ensemble at (267) 329-9746 or info@firstworldtheatre.biz. For more information about CEC, contact Terri Shockley at (215) 387-1911 or cec@cecarts.org.

Principles available for interview