"This is a Woman's Trip": Adapting Ntozake Shange's for colored girls for Stage and Screen

Authors

Claire Watt

Abstract

In lieu of an abstract, the first paragraph of the essay follows:

In her introduction to for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf (1976), Ntozake Shange discusses her personal history of writing and reading as one steeped in "women poets, women's readings, & a multilingual woman presence."¹ From beginning to end, for colored girls is thoroughly "a woman's trip," amplifying the Black female perspective. Explaining her growing love of dance as she developed as a writer, Shange continues: "with the acceptance of the ethnicity of my thighs & backside came a clearer understanding of my voice as a woman & as a poet."² In the 1976 choreopoem version of for colored girls, Black women's voices are spotlighted, but Shange's decision not to include men on stage at any point in the production encouraged many critics to interpret the piece as dismissive or critical of Black men. Yet, by examining the publication history and adaptation process of for colored girls from page to stage to screen, it becomes clear that these criticisms are misplaced and that men are simply not the central concern of the piece.

Notes

1. Ntozake Shange, Plays: One (London: Methuen Drama, 1992), xi. All references to the choreopoem are to this edition.

2. Shange, Plays, xiii.

Recommended Citation

Watt, Claire (2025) ""This is a Woman's Trip": Adapting Ntozake Shange's for colored girls for Stage and Screen," Comparative Drama: Vol. 59: Iss. 1, Article 9.
Available at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/compdr/vol59/iss1/9