Biography

Ntozake Shange was born Paulette Williams into an upper middle-class African American family. Her father was an Air Force surgeon and her mother a psychiatric social worker. Cultural icons such as Dizzy Gillepsie, Miles Davis, and W.E.B. DuBois were regular guests in the Williams home. Shange attended Barnard College and the University of Southern California, earning both a BA and MA in American Studies. Shange’s college years were difficult, however; frustrated and hurt after separating from her first husband, she attempted suicide several times before focusing her rage against the limitations society imposes on Black women. While earning an MA degree, she reaffirmed her personal strength based on a self-determined identity and took her African name, which means “she who comes with her own things” and she “who walks like a lion.” Shange would go on to a successful triple career as an educator, performer/director, and writer whose work drew heavily on her experiences of being a Black female in America.

Shange was perhaps most famous for her play for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf (1975). A unique blend of poetry, music, dance and drama called a “choreopoem,” it “took the theatre world by storm,” noted Jacqueline Trescott in the Washington Post. Shange’s next productions–A Photograph: A Study of Cruelty (1977); Boogie Woogie Landscapes (1977); Spell No. 7 (1979), which also received an Obie Award; and Black and White Two Dimensional Planes (1979)–impressed critics with their poetic quality. (Full Bio) 

Plays

FOR COLORED GIRLS WHO HAVE CONSIDERED SUICIDE/WHEN THE RAINBOW IS ENUF (1974) 

Capturing the brutal, tender and dramatic lives of contemporary Black women, for colored girls... offers a transformative, riveting evening of provocative dance, music and poetry. This groundbreaking "choreopoem" is a spellbinding collection of vivid prose and free verse narratives about and performed by Black women. (Source)

Cast Requirement: 7 (7f)

Characters: lady in brown, lady in yellow, lady in red, lady in green, lady in blue, lady in orange, lady in purple

Publication: for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf: a choreopoem. Scribner, 2010. (Link)

A PHOTOGRAPH: LOVERS IN MOTION (1977) 

The play is about a young Black man who is trying to make it as a professional photographer and is surrounded by caricatures of Black people gone wrong. The exception is a girl friend who is a free and sovereign spirit. The young man's confidence is shattered when he is turned down for the grant he has counted on. (Source) 

Cast Requirement: 5+ (2f, 3m) 

Characters: Sean David, Michael, Nevada, Claire, Earl

Publication: Three Pieces. St. Martin’s Press, 1981. (Link)

BOOGIE WOOGIE LANDSCAPES (1977)

A choreopoem about one night of dreams and memories from a young, African American woman. A collage of dreamlike memories and poetic editorials, Boogie Woogie Landscapes is a funny, moving, and surprising piece of theater from one of America’s most incisive poets/playwrights. (Source)

Cast Requirement: 7 (4f, 3m)

Characters: layla, nightlife companion #1, nightlife companion #2, nightlife companion #3, nightlife companion #4, nightlife companion #5, nightlife companion #6

Publication: Three Pieces. St. Martin’s Press, 1981. (Link)

BLACK AND WHITE TWO DIMENSIONAL PLANES (1979)

A solo show using spoken word poetry. The play tells the story of a fourteen year old girl as she discovers the world in its splendid and terrifying color. 

Cast Requirement: 1 (1f)

Characters: Speaker

Publication: Black and White Two Dimensional Planes. Alexander Street Press, 2005. (Link)*

SPELL #7 (1979)

This striking choreopoem is set in a bar frequented by Black artists and musicians. A meditation on the irony of being Black in a white world, Spell #7 presents artists baring their souls in confessional soliloquies, many of which are illustrated through dance. The play is a sometimes desperate, often unsettling, yet deeply joyous celebration of the fight to maintain sanity and personal integrity in a world where the rules have been dictated rather than chosen. (Source)

Cast Requirement: 9 (5f, 4m)

Characters: lou, alec, dahlia, eli, bettina, lily, natalie, ross, maxine

Publication: Three Pieces. St. Martin’s Press, 1981. (Link)

A DAUGHTER’S GEOGRAPHY (1981)

A solo show using spoken word poetry. The play focuses on motherhood and her two children. 

Cast Requirement: 1 (1f)

Characters: Speaker

Publication: A Daughter’s Geography. St. Martin’s Press, 1983. (Link)

FROM OKRA TO GREENS: A DIFFERENT KINDA LOVE STORY (1985)

Tensions between three couples, each of which represents Okra (a woman) and Greens (a man), result in palpable heat, in the form of lingual duets and luscious monologues. The pair revel in the hues and textures of nature, rebuke the injustices of politics, mourn losses, and celebrate love, all the while proving that language is tactile. This different kinda love story unfolds as an inventive “choreopoem,” which presents drama in powerful verse and fluid choreography. Spirited tribal dance opens the performance, grounding us in the African roots that energize the play. (Source)

Cast Requirement: 7 (1f, 1m, 5any) 

Characters: Okra, Greens, Five Dancers

Publication:  From Okra to Greens: A Different Kinda Love Story. Samuel French, 1985. (Link)

THREE VIEWS OF MT. FUJI (1987) 

A solo show using spoken word poetry about a speaker and her poet sister. 

Cast Requirement: 1 (1f)

Characters: Speaker

Publication: Three Views of Mt. Fuji. Alexander Street Press, 2005. (Link)*

DADDY SAYS (1989) 

Annie Sharon and Lucie-Marie, daughters of two African-American rodeo stars, have been raised by their loving but remote father, Tie-Down, since their mother, Twanda, was killed by an out-of-control horse. The girls feel their mother's absence terribly, especially now that they are beginning to get older, but Tie-Down misses her too much to talk about her. Now Tie-Down has started dating Cassie, and the girls resent her intrusion into their lives. But after a close call at the rodeo, it is Cassie who finally brings this family together. (Source)

Cast Requirement: 4 (3f, 1m)

Characters: Lucie-Marie, Annie Sharon, Tie-Down Brown, Cassie

Publication: Daddy Says. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2023. (Link)*

UNPUBLISHED

WHERE THE MISSISSIPPI MEETS THE AMAZON (1977) 

A collaboration with Jessica Hagedorn and Thulani Nkabinde. Where the Mississippi Meets the Amazon was orchestrated in the fashion of a musical composition. The three collaborators, called the Satin Sisters, performed their own poetry, danced and sang alone or in ensemble, while a band, Teddy and His Sizzling Romancers, played jazz. (Source) 

Cast Requirement: 3 (3f)

Characters: The Satin Sisters

Publication: “Ntozake Shange Papers, 1966-2017.” Archival Material. (Link)

BERTOLT BRECHT’S MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN (1980) 

An adaptation of Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children. Shange’s version sets the play in post-Civil War America, with Mother Courage as an emancipated slave. 

Cast Requirement: 18+ (5f, 13m)

Characters: Old Cowhand, Farmers, Soldiers, Kinsmen, Cook, General, Rancher, Young Cowhand, Mestizo Woman’s Son, Mother Courage, Chaplain, Katie, Sergeant, Kiowa Man, Ordinance Officers, Deputies, Texas Rangers, 1st Klansman, 2nd Klansman, 3rd Klansman,  Old Cowhand, Yvette’s Servant Child, Enoch, Mestizo Woman, Farm Woman, Regimental Clerk, Smoked Cheese, Rebel with Patch, Kiowa Woman, Child, Recruiting Officer, Yvette 

Publication: “Ntozake Shange Papers, 1966-2017.” Archival Material. (Link)

BETSEY BROWN (THE MUSICAL) (1981) 

A musical adaptation of her novel of the same name. Set in St. Louis in 1957, the year of the Little Rock Nine, Shange's story reveals the prismatic effect of racism on an American child and her family. The story illuminates Betsey's adolescence, the rush of first romance, and the sobering responsibilities of approaching adulthood. (Source)

Cast Requirement: 8 (4f, 4m) 

Characters: N/A

Publication: “New York Shakespeare Festival Recordings Collection.” Archival Material. (Link)

RESOURCES