The co-directors of this week’s production of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf by East Tennessee State University’s Division of Theatre bring diverse backgrounds and experience to their work with a small, all-female cast.
“Herb Parker has wonderful artistic technique, and Nakeisha Daniel brings greater diversity to the community,” said Pat Cronin, associate professor of theatre in ETSU’s Department of Communication and director of the Arts Scholars Program in the Honors College. “Putting them together will make a great performance.”
For Colored Girls, a choreo-poem by Ntozake Shange, runs this weekend at ETSU’s Bud Frank Theatre in Gilbreath Hall. Performances begin at 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $5 for ETSU students with ID and $10 for all others. American Sign Language interpretation for the hearing-impaired will be provided during Thursday’s show.
Parker, who holds a bachelor of fine arts in theatre from Stephens College in central Missouri and a master of fine arts in acting from Ohio University in Athens has been in theatre for 26 years and has taught acting for the past six. He has directed many different plays in his career, but an all-female cast is a first for him.
“It is a new experience, but I must say that not only Stephens College, but also many theatre departments have a surprisingly large number of women theatre majors (as compared to) men,” he said. “I love working with this size of cast. It makes it easier to work with all of them. I am able to spend more time on each girl than I could with a larger cast.”
Working together is also new for Parker and Daniel. They met last year at a workshop coordinated by Cronin and conducted by Daniel, a professional actress and choreographer.
An ETSU guest artist for the play, Daniel has been in the theatre profession about six years, most recently working at the Charleston (S.C.) Stage Company, where she acted and taught classes. Her most current performances include Omnium Gatherum, A Christmas Carol and Ain’t Misbehavin’.
Cronin decided to give Daniel a call after a friend of his told him about seeing her in a play. She was willing to come to East Tennessee State to share her craft.
“I am excited to be working here at ETSU,” Daniel said. “I feel I have a lot to offer the college.”
Daniel and Parker agree that working together has been a success. In fact, the co-directors often think so much alike that they complete each other’s sentences. “This is a great collaboration of acting, music, thoughts and feeling,” Daniel said.
Both theatre professionals bring common and individual goals and skills to For Colored Girls , which depicts the lives of seven women and the hardships they endure as they search for their own identity and find love for themselves. Each woman represents a different color of the rainbow: brown, yellow, purple, red, green, blue and orange.
“I hope to bring tightness, hopefully smoothness, so that one scene moves seamlessly to the other,” Parker said. “I hope to help the pace move along and am trying to help the actors find and use themselves in everything they do.”
Although directing is not a new experience for Daniel, she says it is exciting and challenging. “It gives me a chance to look at things differently,” she said. “I have enjoyed working with the ladies of the play. I am an actress, so I understand what they are going through. It is easier for me to work with them.”
The play contains adult language and themes.
For reservations or more information, call the Division of Theatre box office at 439-7576.