I did not set out to direct this play originally. I was going to produce and present it, but scheduling issues prevented some people from being able to direct. However, I recognized my own limitations, and that is why Tanisha Pyron is a co-director. She has performed and directed this play before. As to why present this play? To me, this is an important play. It is a strong play. It is a human play. It speaks and gives voice to what was unsaid in 1975 and, too often, is still unsaid. That is why, in the first poem, the lady in brown exhorts us to “sing a black girl’s song.” This play affected me deeply when I first heard and saw pieces of the show when I was in college. It may have been the first time I saw a room full of people openly crying and sobbing at a theatre performance. It was then and still is an eye-opener. Ntozake Shange’s words have such power – but also magic. The rhythms of the poems reach out and carry you into the stories being told. It sweeps me up so readily that I feel the poems sometimes more than hearing the actual words. So much so, that in directing this play, I have discovered more brilliance in the poems than I remembered, because I remembered the feelings more than the actual words. I hope audiences come away with that sense of having “felt” the poems. After leaving the theatre, I encourage you to pick up a copy of the play – from a bookseller or the library – and rediscover the power in Ms. Shange’s words.
I decided to stage this show in the round, because I wanted to create a more intimate connection between the actors and audience. I wanted a sense that the actors were speaking and telling their stories directly to you, the audience – to make the audience an integral part of the play. That decision did create some dilemmas with staging, which I hope we have overcome.
This is a play which Twin City Squared felt would reach out to an audience which doesn’t often attend theatre, because it does not speak to them. We also wanted to provide an opportunity for people who don’t often perform on stage. And our cast is mostly such people. Make no mistake – this is not a play for a limited audience. People of all ethnicities have been moved by this play and will continue to be moved by this play. It is a landmark of American theatre – and any lover of drama should have an opportunity to see it live.
Garth
THANK YOU to Fluid Event Center, Urbana Landmark Hotel, Christopher Sabin, Ranae Wilson, Monica Samii, Champaign Public Library, Jan Webber, Janet Bercovitz, Ilana Gersten, Wendy Galloway, Chandra Galloway, Heaven White, Lauren Sutter, Matt Childress, Tanya Haenny, AJ Galloway,Unity High School, Chandler Dalton, Andrew and the staff at Minuteman Press, John Tilford, Amanda Polk, SuavA, Evan Galloway, Hot 105.5, Josh Laskowski, Q96, Stevie Jay Broadcasting, Fox Champaign and Barb Wood.
