Source: Cassidi Stuckman, 785-532-6878, cassidi@k-state.edu
News release prepared by: Rosie Hoefling, 785-532-2535, media@k-state.edu

Thursday, Feb. 10, 2011

EBONY THEATER SHINES SPOTLIGHT ON WOMEN OF COLOR IN FREE PERFORMANCES

MANHATTAN -- Kansas State University's Ebony Theater is giving three free performances of the Broadway play "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf."

The first performance is 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 13, at the Manhattan Arts Center, 1520 Poyntz Ave. The play also will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 19, and 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 20, in K-State's Nichols Theater. Advance tickets are not required to attend.

Written in 1975 by Ntozake Shange, the play is about what it was like to be a woman of color in the 20th century and is expressed through the words, gestures, dance and music of seven ladies.

The play begins and ends with the lady in brown. The other six performers represent the colors of the rainbow. The ladies improvise as they shift in and out of different roles.

"For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf" achieved critical success on Broadway and was the recipient of the Obie Award.

The K-State production will be directed by Marci Maullar, managing director of K-State Theatre and professor of theater. The play will be directed in a readers' theater style but with movement and memorization throughout.

K-State students in the cast or crew for "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf" include:

Rhett Jones, junior in theater, Hutchinson, set design; Laura Vallejo, senior in theater, Junction City, as Lady in Blue; Da'Ja Bresette, freshman in pre-journalism and mass communications, Kansas City, Kan., as Lady in Yellow; Cassidi Stuckman, master's student in theater, Manhattan, choreographer; Jennifer Lee, master's student in theater, Newton, stage manager; Caresse Elliott, freshman in theater, Ogden, as Lady in Orange; Nahshon Ruffin, junior in theater, Overland Park, as Lady in Purple; Erika Williams, sophomore in theater, Topeka, as Lady in Brown; and Tegan Perkins, sophomore in theater, Wichita, costume design.

From out of state: Taneysha Howard, sophomore in agricultural communications and journalism, St. Louis, Mo., as Lady in Green; and Breanna Stewart, sophomore in music, Flower Mound, Texas, as Lady in Red.