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Ntozake Shange’s ‘for colored girls…’ —a cathartic classic

(Left to right): Stacey Sargeant (Lady in Blue), Amara Granderson (Lady in Orange), Okwui Okpokwasili (Lady in Green), Tendayi Kuumba (Lady in Brown), Kenita R. Miller (Lady in Red),

D. Woods (Lady in Yellow), Alexandria Wailes (Lady in Purple) in “for colored girls…” (Marc J. Franklin photo)

By LINDA ARMSTRONG

Special to the AmNews

Ntozake Shange’s play “for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf” is a catharsis for Black women! It shares the attributes of Black women—their love, their sacrifice, their devotion, their support of family and each other, but also their feelings of being marginalized and abused. Black women get to be seen at all the points of their existence.

Through seven characters only referred to as the Lady in Red, the Lady in Yellow, the Lady in Brown, the Lady in Green, the Lady in Purple, the Lady in Blue and the Lady in Orange, we hear stories of unrequited love, betrayal, rape, seduction, indifference and murder. Black women and their self-esteem are commodities devalued by the world, especially by Black men. The depth of Shange’s voice is bottomless. Black girls and women are connected through the ancestors and hold a bond which rejuvenates and sustains us through the worst things that can happen in life. Sitting in that audience with my 19-year-old daughter Jasmine and hearing these extraordinary actresses speak the timeless words of Shange was an emotionally overwhelming experience. Often, both my daughter and I found ourselves crying, sometimes cheering, sometimes agreeing with the resilience of our Sisters and indulging in their moments of reflection and joy. There was a moment when the entire theater burst out in sounds of affirmation and anticipation when the Lady in Green began a wellknown and beloved monologue “somebody almost walked off with all of my stuff.” That monologue is a woman sharing how her man breaking up with her almost caused her to lose herself—everything that is a part of her being and identity. And, worst of all, he didn’t even realize it. She was tearing herself down and losing her essence and was the only one experiencing this life-altering event. But, thank God, she came to her senses before it was too late.

I love how this production has Black women proclaiming that they love their men on purpose, they are not sorry, and they don’t need to hear the men telling them how sorry they are for hurting them, cheating on them, lying to them. They call these particular Black men out and it’s a healing feeling. Another moment that happens in this play is of course the horrific story told by the Lady in Red at the end, of Crystal who loved Bo Willie, a love that was to have a very traumatic journey and stunningly tragic end. At the end of this production I could not speak, I was overwhelmed with emotions. I could clap uncontrollably, but I wanted to shout and nothing would come. Thank God my daughter shouted, screamed, cried and clapped loud enough for us both.

This cast of Ladies is absolutely unforgettable! Kenita R. Miller is astounding as the Lady in Red; Okwui Okpokwasili is moving as the Lady in Green; Stacey Sargeant is sizzling as the Lady in Blue; D. Woods is dynamite as the Lady in Yellow; Tendayi Kuumba is formidable as the Lady in Brown; Amara Granderson is tremendous as the Lady in Orange and Alexandria Wailes is remarkable as the Lady in Purple—signing her feelings and having other ladies speak the words. This ensemble has a connection that spills out across the footlights and into the audience. We could feel everything they conveyed, and often there were audience affirmations, anger and shock. What was also marvelous about this production being on Broadway is how Shange’s play brought so many Black people to the Great White Way. Our beautiful people were out in droves and the rest of the audience was a lovely mixture of races. But, everyone felt the pain, joy, uncertainty, sorrow and connection of the Black woman. Camille A. Brown’s staging of this classic show was absolutely brilliant and brought it into this century. These ladies are not in dresses, but wear comfortable dance attire. They dance in the forms of praise, hip hop and use dance as a means to express and cleanse themselves. Brown as the choreographer and director has taken this already powerful work to a new unimagined level of power! “for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf” is playing at the Booth Theatre at 222 W 45th Street. Please, all my Sistas go and experience this production, you will feel something that will overwhelm you, inspire you and sustain you.

For more info, visit www.https:// forcoloredgirlsbway.com.

By MARGRIRA

Special to the AmNews

The Caribbean Film Series returns to the Brooklyn Film Festival, and the official selection to open the event is “Right Near the Beach,” directed by and starring Gibrey Allen, who was also in attendance with a post-screening Q&A on April 27 at Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM).

In Allen’s “Right Near the Beach” the film focuses on a prominent Jamaican sprinter, Jeffery Jacobs, who is found brutally and mysteriously murdered. Rumors about a secret life he may have lived create a public uproar, causing obstructions to the murder investigation, and torment for Jeffery’s normally placid father, who seeks justice for his son.

“Right Near the Beach” takes a hard look at homophobia in Jamaica set against a backdrop of beautiful vistas and it does not treat the murder as a voyeuristic mystery, but rather the film challenges audiences to contemplate the agony of loss instead of debating the value of one person’s life.

The co-producer of The Caribbean Film Series and executive director of The Luminal Theater, Curtis Caesar John, says this: “What Gibrey Allen does with ‘Right Near the Beach’ is portray what in less capable hands would be a predictable ‘ripped from the headlines’ story and treats it both politically and sensitively.”

The film is preceded by Nelson Foix’s short film “Timoun Aw” (Your Kid). For audiences, tickets are currently available for purchase at BAM.org. Following the film screening, there will be a talkback featuring the film’s director Gibrey Allen moderated by writer/ editor/film curator Dessane Lopez Cassell.

Now in its seventh year, the Caribbean Film Series is an ongoing program of Third Horizon, the result of the merger between the Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Luminal Theater, Brooklyn-based Caribbean Film Academy, and Miamibased Third Horizon Media, an award-winning creative collective dedicated to developing, producing, exhibiting, and distributing film and other art forms that give voice to stories of the Caribbean, its diaspora, and other marginalized and underrepresented spaces in the Global South.

The Luminal Theater (2015) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation. LT is a nomadic cinema that due to the arts being underserved in too many urban and rural communities, brings Black films straight to the people. They provide fully-curated exhibitions of diverse and complex cinema and media of the Black/African diaspora, allowing these artists to present their work within our unique brand of shared audience experiences, presented in majority-Black communities across the United States and virtually.

For more information, visit www.bam.org.

Stills from “Right Near the Beach” (Courtesy photos)

‘The Offer’ looks inside the legendary ‘Godfather’ film

By MARGRIRA

Special to the AmNews

I don’t care what my colleagues might think about the new, limited series “The Offer”—a look at the making of the historic film, “The Godfather,” but I loved it!

“The Godfather” is one of the most successful films made and it has stood the test of time because it employed a solid storytelling structure. This might raise questions about our world’s need to engage in storytelling as a species because long before films and novels, there were stories around the proverbial fire and illustrations on cave walls.

Former producer and Paramount executive Robert Evans, played in this series by Matthew Goode, is our guide in the saga of how “The Godfather” actually got made. At the time, Evans was Paramount Pictures’ vice president, and part of his job was answering to a board of investors who were always looking for new and exciting ways to fire him. This was a period of great financial uncertainty, and the company was struggling. They emphasized the staggering difference between what Evans does and what these “titans of industry” do for work.

Evans, here, isn’t just fighting to get his movies made, the passionate man with a golden touch was fighting the good fight for all movies to get made. He was standing on his proverbial soapbox, advocating for each and every storyteller who dreamed of working in film.

Wearing his signature big, black glasses with a perpetual, warm California tan, he was like a hungry dog with a juicy bone: “You have to feed their souls,” he says, pacing around the corporate boardroom. He tells them with assurance, tagged with a warning that America is broken. Citing that the people don’t trust big business or politics. His speech back then sounds like America now, and movies then (and now) drop the viewer into a world far away from their own. Movies entertain and provide an escape—“We’ll feed their souls until they’re fit to burst,” he promises, and movies (in general) have made good on his promise.

Charles Bluhdorn (Burn Gorham) made the decision to keep Paramount in the Gulf & Western bulging portfolio, and Evans kept his job (that day). The big picture under discussion was

“The Godfather”—eventually directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Al Pacino—which is essentially a film about American families. Available on Paramount+ limited, “The Offer” is based on Oscar-winning producer Albert S. Ruddy’s extraordinary, never-before-seen experiences of making “The Godfather.” The series stars Miles Teller as Albert S. Ruddy, Matthew Goode as Robert Evans, Juno Temple as Bettye McCartt, Giovanni Ribisi as Joe Colombo, Dan Fogler as Francis Ford Coppola, Burn Gorman as Charles Bluhdorn, Colin Hanks as Barry Lapidus and Patrick Gallo as Mario Puzo. The series begins on April 28 and runs through June 16. Is “The Offer” going to appeal to a casual fan of the film or would it be more of an attractive offer for a cinephile scholar? Or will it fulfill the casual television viewer as they get a peek into how movies are made?

In the role of producer Al Ruddy, Miles Teller brings great weight to a computer programmer who created the now legendary television show “Hogan’s Heroes.” Ruddy has the right stuff for Hollywood. He wrote himself out of a dull life where he would have been chained to a 9-to-5 desk job. Using his instincts he hires Bettye McCartt (Juno Temple) as his secretary, a big-brained woman who would have eventually run a studio if she were born in another era.

Ruddy flies to New York to pitch Charlie on his vision for “The Godfather”—the bestseller the studio purchased for a bargain. He wants to turn the book into a film, but Hollywood thinks that

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gangster movies are dead.

Ruddy is a problem solver, a real producer and he wants Mario Puzo (Patrick Gallo) to write the screenplay, but Paramount has a hard and fast rule about authors adapting their own material.

Instead, he pushes for the indieminded auteur, Francis Ford Coppola (Dan Fogler) to direct. The casting of the lead becomes another interesting chapter in this saga—tucked inside a saga—as they attempt to trim the screenplay, deal with dallies, and try to anticipate what viewers will like or not like.

The stakes are high for Ruddy, and his relationship with Evans goes up and down as they attempt to make “The Godfather” into a movie.

“The Offer” series creator and writer, Michael Tolkin (“The Player”) adds an interesting subplot that is wrapped around the Colombo crime family, and the Italian American Civil Rights League. In the center of both of them is the infamous crime figure, Joe Colombo (Giovanni Ribisi) who is against the movie but eventually, with Ruddy’s influence, becomes an important and powerful ally. But becoming a friend of a known mob boss comes with its own set of risks and challenges. Now, for the fans of the iconic movie “The Godfather,” there are many interesting facts shared, like how the cat that curled up on Marlon Brando’s lap wasn’t in the screenplay and how the infamous severed “horse head” found in a reluctant producers’ bed may or may not have been real.

There’s a lot of value in listening to how Coppola and Puzo discuss the screenplay and the look at how movies were made in the 1970s, which isn’t that different (sadly) today. There is a sincere nod to the magic of making movies and the highlighting of the need to want this more than anything else in your life.

But what really makes “The Offer” such a fun ride is that we get to understand what a producer does, and doesn’t do, via the experience of Al Ruddy who managed to do the impossible which was to produce a classic, ever-green film that will live—forever—“The Godfather” and I, for one, am forever grateful to him for standing strong inside the tempest and helping the storytellers share their vision.

Patrick Gallo and Dan Fogler in “The Offer” (Image courtesy of Paramount+)

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