The Heritage Ensemble Theatre Company often likes to intertwine the familiar with the unfamiliar, so they are presenting two provocative works in rotating repertory at Firehouse. Audiences can experience the female point of view in Ntozake Shange's ground-breaking choreopoem FOR COLORED GIRLS WHO HAVE CONSIDERED SUICIDE WHEN THE RAINBOW IS ENUF, and then explore the male response in Keith Antar Mason's FOR BLACK BOYS WHO HAVE CONSIDERED HOMICIDE WHEN THE STREETS WERE TOO MUCH.
Ntozake Shange is a poet, novelist, and playwright. FOR COLORED GIRLS... opened on Broadway in 1976 and was only the second play by a Black woman to be produced on Broadway (
Lorraine Hansberry's 1959 A RAISIN IN THE SUN was the first). Director Shanea N. Taylor will use the text to paint a picture of sisterhood while illustrating the struggles and obstacles that African-American women may face throughout their lives. Shange updated the play in 2010 after the film version, but Taylor has decided to honor Shange by using the original version of the script.
Keith Antar Mason is a poet and playwright. Mason wrote his play in 2000 in response to Shange's choreopoem, but from the male perspective. Mason's play examines the violence and racial and economic injustice that Black men encounter in the U.S. The Heritage Ensemble Theatre Company's Artistic Director
Margarette Joyner directs Mason's play.
The two productions are running in rotating repertory at Firehouse Theatre so audiences can experience them in conversation with each other.
FOR COLORED GIRLS WHO HAVE CONSIDERED SUICIDE WHEN THE RAINBOW IS ENUF is directed by Shanea N. Taylor. Also on the production team is stage manager Jaeda Reames and costume designer
Margarette Joyner. The show stars Dorothy "Dee-D" Miller, Kaleeta Johnson-Anderson, Kevonnie Elaine Shelton,
Margarette Joyner,
Pamela Shaw, Tyra Robinson and Valerie Davis. Performance Schedule: Thu, March 3 @ 8pm; Sat, March 5 @ 4pm; Thu, March 10 @ 8pm; and Sat, March 12 @ 8pm.
FOR BLACK BOYS WHO HAVE CONSIDERED HOMICIDE WHEN THE STREETS WERE TOO MUCH is directed by
Margarette Joyner. Also on the production team are stage manager Ameesha Smith and costume designer
Margarette Joyner. Starring: Dante' Rollerson, Jahred King,
Jonathan Bailey, Rakeem Laws, R'eShad Horton and Xavier Smith. Performance Schedule: Fri, March 4 @ 8pm; Sat, March 5 @ 8pm; Fri, March 11 @ 8pm; Sat, March 12 @ 4pm (SOLD OUT).
For tickets, contact the Box Office at (804) 355-2001 or visit
www.firehousetheatre.org. Full Price Tickets: $15; Groups: $12 for groups of 10 or more. Mature audiences only. Free parking across the street at Lowe's.
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