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Camille A. Brown makes dances, history with Ntozake Shange’s choreopoem

By ZITA ALLEN

Special to the AmNews

Camille A. Brown is a phenomenal woman. This year she continues to solidify her reputation as one of the most extraordinarily talented choreographers of her generation with a list that includes impressive achievements involving the Broadway production of Ntozake Shange’s “for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf.” There are two Tony Award nominations, one for best direction of a play, and another for best choreography, not to mention Outer Critics Circle Award nominations for direction and choreography and the Drama League Award nomination for outstanding direction. Her work embodies the essence of storytelling, making her a dance griot of the African American/African Diasporic experience. And, nowhere is that more evident than in Shange’s choreopoem.

This recent feat is only the latest of her works that include an impressive array of projects she’s taken on while maintaining her company Camille A. Brown’s & Dancers (CABD) which seeks to “instill curiosity and reflection in diverse audiences through her emotionally raw and thought-provoking work.” As anyone who has seen her company perform knows, she has an uncanny ability to enable Black bodies to “tell their story using their own language through movement and dialogue.” While this is a key mission for her company, it also is reflected in such other Broadway and off-Broadway projects as “Once On This Island,” “Toni Stone,” “A Streetcar Named Desire,” “Much Ado About Nothing,” “for colored girls…”; film/television: Academy Awardwinning “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” Emmy Awardwinning “Jesus Christ Superstar Live.” Ms. Brown has also choreographed the critically acclaimed “Porgy and Bess” for The Metropolitan Opera and this September became the first Black woman director for the main stage at the MET with “Fire Shut Up in My Bones.”

Recently, she took a little time out of a busy schedule to speak to the Amsterdam News about her current historic role as director and choreographer of the current Broadway production of “for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf.”

AmNews: Congratulations on the amazing Tony Award nominations for your historic dual role with “for colored girls.” Talk to us about what this production of Ntozake’s groundbreaking play means to you.

CB: It’s been a part of my world from the beginning. My mom always told me don’t ever let anyone take your stuff away. She told me a couple of years ago that that saying was from the poem “somebody almost walked off wid alla my stuff” by Ntozake, from the first Broadway production in the 1970s, so it just made me feel more connected to the show cause it’s been a part of my existence through my mom. So it’s special to be able to really dive into the poem under my own vision…and the stories I want to tell. Of course, Ntozake is obviously telling the story through her poetry but…I’m grateful her work has given me the courage to tell myself, “Ok Camille, this is a further extension of who you are and Ntozake is providing you with the perfect vehicle of a choreopoem.’”

AmNews: Tell folks what a choreopoem is exactly because it was formulated by Ntozake and now there are a lot of folks using the form without knowing or giving credit where credit is due.

CB: It means that movement and poetry co-exist. So often we get into situations where people feel like movement is too distracting, or movement is just about steps, but here Ntozake clearly defines movement as storytelling and that’s all that I am and so to be able to have that opportunity on this platform and today and have seven Black women represent the full spectrum of who we are, not just the pain but also the joy and the Black Girl Magic is so important. And to be able to hold that space for them and for them, in turn, to be able to hold the space for me is just really a moment. It’s a moment.

AmNews: You’ve made a few changes in this 2022 production of “for colored girls” that brings it up to date, can you discuss those?

CB: Yes, we have this American Sign Language (ASL) inclusion and we have the element of projection and sound and rhythm. You know I’m a rhythmical person so I have a very specific idea about what rhythms I saw specifically for each poem. Also, I knew Ntozake used Martha and the Vandellas when she wrote it in the 1970s and I thought well, I grew up in the 1990s so what if we swap Martha and the Vandellas for a SWV’s tune “I’m So Into You.” The point was making it “now”…showing these poems as timeless, as about more than looking back at what was but looking forward to what is still.

AmNews: You’ve always incorporated vernacular or social dance movements into your productions. I saw traces of the hambone, salsa, marenge and kids games in “for colored girls.” They all make it so relatable.

CB: Yeah. It’s like the whole African diaspora of the Black experience. We go from hand clap games like Little Sally Walker to Gigilo, which is in there ‘cause that’s what I grew up with, and we have the idea of referencing Juba. I incorporate Juba dance inside of my work in general so you’re going to see some type of hand-clapping, thighslapping in almost anything that I do, depending on what is called for in the piece. You’ll see a little essence of games that we play with each other as we transition from one poem to the next, to the next…showing how we exchange energy.

AmNews: I noticed that each of the women has a movement flow that is unique to them.

CB: I told the women that to me the colors represent vessels. So that the Lady in Red at the beginning is not necessarily, the Lady in Red at the end. So, we’re looking at, how do these women use these colors to evoke the essence of the women whose stories they step into. So usually, the poem “One” is done by the Lady in Red but I chose for it to be done by the Lady in Yellow because I wanted…the beginning as talking about the first time she lost her virginity, versus further on down in the show when we get to “One” where she uses her sexuality as a weapon.

AmNews: Trezana Beverley was the Lady in Red in the original production and she did “A Night With Beau Willy Brown.” That’s such a powerful piece. How do you incorporate that and movement together because that’s one of those stories where the world stops when you hear it. In fact, in the theater you could hear a pin drop as Kenita R. Miller in this year’s production tells the story.

CB: I told the women that this play is about empowerment and I told them I want us to end on a high note. And, in the beginning I told them I don’t want us to be seen as victims. When we look at the poem “dark phrases” and she talks about “Are we crazy? Are we ghouls?” You know, my response is ‘Yes I feel that,” also, “We were not born that way. We were not born confused. We were born magical and it’s the world that made us question who we were.” So, I wanted to start us in the place of empower-

Choreographer Camille A. Brown

(L-R):Tendayi Kuumba (Lady in Brown), Okwui Okpokwasili (Lady in Green), D. Woods (Lady in Yellow), Amara Granderson (Lady in Orange), Stacey Sargeant (Lady in Blue) in “for colored girls…” (Marc J. Franklin photo)

By ZITA ALLEN

Special to the AmNews

It makes absolutely no sense that the dynamic Broadway production of Ntozake Shange’s “for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf,” which is brilliantly directed and choreographed by Camille A. Brown and features a cast of seven extraordinarily talented young actresses, and has received seven Tony Award nominations, was the subject of reports that it was in danger of closing due to sluggish ticket sales.

Following an earlier announcement that the show must close, the most Tony-nominated play currently on Broadway will now play an additional two weeks through Sunday, June 5, at Broadway’s Booth Theatre (222 W. 45th Street). The previously announced final performance was Sunday, May 22.

After all, Brown’s explosively energetic and inspired iteration of Shange’s moldshattering masterpiece takes audiences on an emotional roller coaster. It’s a journey that begins with the naïve exuberance of children’s games before moving on to young girl’s sexual rites of passage, womanhood’s cautionary tales, exhilarating highs and devastating, traumatic lows. All, as seven “colored girls” take us through Ntozake’s world of words following a color-coded road map of mood-setting movements expertly crafted by Brown. Actors skip, run, jump, bump and grind, clap and moan embodying every expressed emotion as they offer breathy declarations of love, angry claims that “Somebody almost walked off wid alla my stuff,” painful personal stories like “abortion cycle #1- 4,” or the bonechilling tragic tale of “a night with beau willie brown.” Rounding it out is a transcendent spiritual awakening and “a layin’ on of hands” by a regenerative sister circle. “for colored girls” is unmistakably powerfully and spiritually cathartic. Therefore, that there is even talk of it closing because of sluggish ticket sales makes no sense.

First, not only is this joyful celebration of Shange’s seminal work making history as the first Broadway production directed and choreographed by a Black woman in more than 65 years, but its seven performers are phenomenal and critics have sung its praises. Critics have declared Camille A. Brown’s staging “so attuned to the words and cadences of Shange’s choreopoem, yet so confident in its own interpretive vision, that the characters blossom into their full vibrancy.” And, the performances by Amara Granderson, Tendayi Kuumba, Okwui Okpokwashili, Stacey Sargeant, Alexandria Wailes, D. Woods not to mention, Tony-nominated Kenita R. Miller, blow audiences away.

If that isn’t reason enough to prompt a groundswell of support, there is the fact that Shange’s work was clearly destined to join the canon of great African American works in theater history the moment it burst onto the scene back in 1976. And, it was destined to be a hit, according to Woodie King, the producer who gave Shange’s choreopoem its first theatrical home at his New Federal Theatre, after seeing it at the invitation of Shange’s sister, Ife Bayeza, in a little bar on 3rd Street. Ntozake has said that her sister had “a larger vision of ‘for colored girls’” than she had ever imagined. As a result, it blossomed in the 1970s with the help of King, then-director Oz Scott, subsequent co-producer Joseph Papp, and a group of young performers, all in their 20s, that included, Trezana Beverley, who went on to become the first ever African American winner of the Tony Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Play, Laurie Carlos, Aku Kadogo, Paula Moss, Janet League, Rise Collins, and Shange herself as the Lady in Orange.

King says from the moment he saw it he “really loved it.” He suggested a showcase at his New Federal Theatre at the Henry Street Settlement where he had produced seminal Black Arts Movement plays by Ed Bullins, Ron Millner, and others. “Immediately there were lines around the block. People just loved it ‘cause Black theater was doing stuff that attracted Black people and this play attracted Black women, immediately.

“Then, I invited the Public Theatre’s Joseph Papp to see it and he said ‘Whoa!’” The next move to the Public Theater was a no-brainer. “Papp knew it wouldn’t cost that much. It had already had rehearsals and then-director Oz Scott was in place.” The rest is, as they say, history. Night after night, the Public Theater was packed. It got rave reviews and won off-Broadway’s highest honor, an Obie Award.

By LINDA ARMSTRONG Special to the AmNews

“Wedding Band,” a play by the late, great Alice Childress, is experiencing a breathtaking production at the Polonsky Shakespeare Center in Brooklyn on Ashland Place. It is presented and produced by Theatre for a New Audience as part of its residency of CLASSIX— a collective created by Awoye Timpo with Brittany Bradford, A.J. Muhammad, Dominique Rider and Arminda Thomas—that concentrates on Black performance history and Black writers. Childress’ play is one of the most gripping pieces of theater you would want to experience. She writes about Charleston, South Carolina, a place where racism is alive and well in 1918. A place where a Black soldier in uniform can have water thrown upon him by the poor whites in the community who resent seeing him in a military uniform. A place where Black men are still being lynched and must always watch what they say to white people. A place where white, racist mothers are proud to teach their children to hate Black people and consider them always beneath them. With all of this tension in the air, we find Black ladies living in a rooming house, owned by the only Black woman in town allowed to own property, Ms. Fanny Johnson. The rooming house is home to Mattie and her daughter, Teeta, Lula Green and her son Nelson, a Black soldier. And then a newcomer, Julia Augustine, arrives.

When Julia first moves in she tries to stay to herself, but finds that, in this small community, that is hard to do. When she, desperate for company, shares her secret with the other ladies, they at first turn away. You see, Julia, a beautiful, Black seamstress, is having an affair with a white baker named Herman and has been doing so for 10 years. An affair that is against the anti-miscegenation laws and so has caused her to keep moving from place to place so that they can be together.

The Black women and the young Black soldier try to tell Julia all that white people have done and continue to do to our people. They tell her that he is using her. Herman comes to Julia’s home and it’s soon realized that he has yellow fever. His mother and sister are sent for, because the police can’t be called. It is illegal for him to be in a Black woman’s bed. Julia is very distraught that she can’t send for a doctor. Herman’s sister Annabelle comes to get him, but insists on waiting until it’s dark. She immediately starts verbally attacking Julia and Herman for doing this horrible thing. She also lets them know that she and his mother knew something wasn’t right. When his mother arrives she is filled with hatred; everything she says to Julia has a racist bite. Furious that her son has been keeping time with a Black woman, she would rather he die than call a doctor and face the shame of his location. When Herman’s mother speaks her words show what deep racism looks like. Julia comes back at her with both barrels, only to have Herman, who has been suffering with yellow fever, react with racist remarks as well.

Suddenly, she truly appreciates all the warnings and the anger of her people about this relationship. She realizes that there have been many times in their relationship when she would want to talk about the racist acts of the people around them and Herman would shut her down. Childress has developed all her characters with great detail, enabling them to represent so vividly the horrific situations that Black people faced during those times and, of course, sadly are still facing today. In this play, their love was not really enough, because the entire world was against them. The entire world seemed to feel it could legislate who one could love. This story truly resonates on so many levels. The “Wedding Band” ultimately demonstrates the ties that bind the Black community. It also shows the strength of true love.

The company of actors is exceptional. Brittany Bradford delivers Julia with a precious tenderness and vulnerability, but also a feistiness. Thomas Sadoski is marvelous, gentle and caring as Herman, though he is also conflicted between his love for Julia and his loyalty to his very racist, cruel Mother. Rebecca Haden is memorable as Annabelle. Veanne Cox is incredibly vicious as Herman’s mother. She gives that role such teeth and just leaves you stunned. Rosalyn Coleman is magnificent as Lula Green and Rendrick Palmer is poignant as her son Nelson. Nelson is daily disrespected in the town and so Julia loving a white man is like a slap in the face and Palmer delivers that anger and those frustrations beautifully! Elizabeth Van Dyke brings her A-game to the role of Fanny Johnson, she is brilliant! Her character represents the Black woman’s success, but also her intelligence as she knows how to maneuver her way around the racists in her midst. Phoenix Noelle is delightful as Teeta, as is Sofie Nesanelis as Princess. Max Woertendyke does well as the Bell Man, who goes around selling his wares to the Black women, while blatantly showing them disrespect. This play will leave you speechless, as its direction is perfectly executed by Awoye Timpo. The play only runs through May 22. Please make plans to go and be mesmerized by a vividly powerful production.

For more info, visit www.www.tfana.org.

Brittany Bradford as Julia Augustine and Rosalyn Coleman as Lula Green in Alice Childress’ “Wedding Band” (Hollis King photo)

PROJECT 2025 Malcolm X @ 100-

an initiative of The National Center for African Communitarian Culture -a social thought and development institute-

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ACallforNationalCommunity

"We must launch A Cultural Revolution to unbrainwash an entire people. Our Cultural Revolution must be a means of bringing us closer to our African brothers and sisters. It must begin in the community and Lorem Ipsubased mon community participation. "

Malcolm X - OAAU 1964

Sat.,19 May,2018

Not since the beginning of the 1970s with the formation of the short-lived Congress of African People (CAP)* has there been an attempt to construct a collective planning & deliberative assembly. The National Center for African Communitarian Culture (NCACC) has taken the initiative to revisit that historic project.

CAP founded in 1970, was an outgrowth of The Black Power/Black Arts Movements of the 1960s. CAP served as the key structure for institutionalization of the "Cultural Revolution " , the socio-political project called for by Malcolm X and the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU) in 1964. CAP, however, became an unfortunate casualty of the

"Black Leftist versus Black Nationalist" ideological struggle in 1974.

BuildingBuilding on the humanist/spiritual values and socio-political vision of Brother Malcolm X, The National Center for African Communitarian Culture proposes: PROJECT 2025 / Malcolm X @ 100. Year 2025 marks the centennial of the birth of Malcolm X (and the 60th anniversary of his martyrdom). Remembering Malcolm ' s cosmic/spiritualmic/spiritual affinity for the number Seven (the combination of 100 plus 60 will quantify to Seven). along with his definition of Black Nationalism within a social; economic and political philosophical context.

The practical thrust of PROJECT 2025 is toward the institution of a bi-annual National Community Congress, i.e., a collective planning and deliberative assembly, designed to facilitate dialogue for constructing a coherent system of the most advanced social; economic and political initiatives necessary for maximum national community or ganization and development. The National Center for African Communitarian Culture calls on all sons and daughters of Africa - nationalist; Pan-Africanist and socialist - to stand on common ground and complete the "Cultural Revolution " envisioned by Malcolm X, and now to be revisited through PROJECT 2025 / Malcolm X @ 100.