ACTNEW NORDIC VOICESDENMARK’S TRANSNATIONAL THEATRE COMPANY
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The women of For Colored Girls gathered in a close healing circle on stage.
Production dossier · New Nordic Voices

For Colored Girls

dark phrases of womanhood /
of never havin been a girl /
half-notes scattered /
without rhythm / no tune

this is for colored girls who have considered suicide /
but moved to the ends of their own rainbows.

PlaywrightNtozake Shange
ProducerMichael Omoke
DirectorDr. Shirley Basfield DunlapBio
Fragments of the choreopoem

sing a black girl's song /
bring her out /
to know herself /
to know you

but sing her rhythms /
carin / struggle / hard times /
sing her song of life

she's been dead so long /
closed in silence so long /
she doesn't know the sound /
of her own voice /
her infinite beauty

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Nordic debut

A Nordic Door Opens

Helsinki, Nordic Culture Point, and the debut of For Colored Girls…

It was a profound honour for New Nordic Voices to present For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf at the esteemed Nordic Culture Point in Helsinki, Finland, with support connected to the wider cultural framework of the Nordic Council of Ministers.

Their generosity — both financial and collaborative — was pivotal in making this Nordic debut possible. The production marked more than a single presentation. It opened a longer artistic journey rooted in inter-Nordic collaboration, cultural exchange, and the movement of Black and Brown voices across Nordic stages.

Nordic Culture Point reception in Helsinki with Nordic flags.
Nordic Culture Point, HelsinkiInstitutional threshold

The doorway into the Nordic debut: institution, flags, and cultural infrastructure holding the first Nordic presentation of For Colored Girls…

Curtain Call / Standing OvationThe Nordic debut meets its audience.

A short audience-response film from the Helsinki presentation — the moment the performance closed inside applause, recognition, and arrival.

InvitationInvited into a Nordic institution.

New Nordic Voices enters the room through Nordic Culture Point in Helsinki.

DebutThe work enters the Nordic field.

The production becomes a living inter-Nordic collaboration rather than a one-off presentation.

RecognitionThe audience stands.

The curtain call becomes the emotional image of arrival: performers, audience, and institution meeting in one room.

Reading note

This dossier follows the production through selected plates and brief poem cues. Some stills are named, some carry only a charged line, and some are left without commentary so gesture, spacing, and relation can hold the room on their own.

Printed matter

Production playbill

Held here as a lead archival plate, the For Colored Girls playbill carries the production’s visual language with unusual composure: painterly, frontal, and already fully authored.

Production playbill for For Colored Girls with painterly colour fields and six portrait panels.
PlaybillFor Colored Girls2019
Scene one

The entrance

let her be born /
let her be born /
& handled warmly.

The ensemble in a bright collective image on stage.
Performers gathered on stage around a set of boxes.
A vivid moving stage image from For Colored Girls.
Scene two

Solo studies

i'm outside chicago /
i'm outside detroit /
i'm outside houston /
i'm outside baltimore /
i'm outside san francisco /
i'm outside manhattan /
i'm outside st. louis

A performer in blue lying powerfully on the stage floor.
Close portrait of a performer in green against darkness.
A performer in green seated in a poised solo moment.
A woman in green poised low to the floor in a sculptural solo image.
sechita
Scene three

Graduation night

it was graduation nite & i waz the only virgin in the crowd /
smellin of thunderbird & ladies in heat /
we rambled from camden to mount holly /
laughin at the afternoon's speeches

Three performers against red brick light in a dramatic tableau.
Two women in a moody red and green stage composition.
Portrait of a performer in purple dress.
Four women seated together in a burst of laughter and delight.
graduation nite laughin at the afternoon's speeches
A performer in yellow leaning forward in a vivid solo moment.
i waz the only virgin in the crowd
Women in yellow, coral, and purple moving across the stage in a bright dance image.
we gotta dance to keep from cryin /
we gotta dance to keep from dyin
Scene four

After the wound

one thing i don't need /
is any more apologies

A woman in red holding a woman in blue in a moment of care.
Two women in green and brown in a close embrace.
A close circle of women supporting one another on stage.
Four women standing together, one covering her face in an after-wound image.
one one thing i don't need / is any more apologies
Two women in purple and pale pink in a quiet close bond.
pyramid
Four women arranged in an embrace of sisterhood and composure.
pyramid three friends / one laugh / one music
The women gather close around one woman in a shared act of care and witness.
a laying on of hands
A woman in coral pointing upward in a moment of self-recognition.
i found god in myself /
& i loved her fiercely
Scene five

Backstage, before the bow

three of us like a pyramid /
three friends /
one laugh /
one music

The cast backstage before going on stage.

three friends / one laugh / one music

one flowered shawl /
knotted on each neck

come to share our worlds witchu /
we come here to be dancin

Final image

Curtain call

hold yr head like it was ruby sapphire /
i'm a poet /
who writes in english /
come to share the worlds witchu

The ensemble linking arms at the curtain call.
Four performers standing together in a final lineup.
A bright ensemble image from For Colored Girls.

come to share our worlds witchu

we come here to be dancin
In memoriam

A dignified witness in the room

H.E. Ambassador Zindziswa Mandela joined an evening of For Colored Girls in Denmark. She passed away a few months later, and this image with Michael Omoke remains here in memoriam: not as decoration, but as witness.

H.E. Ambassador Zindziswa Mandela pictured with Michael Omoke at an evening of For Colored Girls.

Michael Omoke & H.E. Ambassador Zindziswa Mandela

She belongs on this page because the production was not only staged. It was received, marked, and carried into a wider public field of dignity and recognition.

Her presence honors that evening; her memory now deepens it.

Credits

Cast & production team

The women and collaborators who gave the production its poise, precision, and force.

Actors
Performers
Rebecca Langley · Alice Knuth · Shasyaa Harsh · Victoria Wanjiku · Pernille Nordtorp · Doreen Madonsela · Ellen Gram
Production
Director
Dr. Shirley Basfield Dunlap
Producer
Michael Omoke
Stage Manager
Anna-Marie Bilicher
Light Designer
Cheryl Williams
Choreographer
Elisha Ngoma
Finance
Anders Juhl
Production Coordinator
Zach Khadudu
Presentation
Project format
New Nordic Voices
Partner
Intercult
Venue
Kulttuurikeskus Caisa, Helsinki
Dates
7–9 March 2019
Supported by
Nordic Council of Ministers
A New Nordic Voices production that insisted on dignity without stiffness, elegance without passivity, and beauty without surrender.
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