For Colored Girls Racks Up Awards

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Broadway and other New York City theaters may be shuttered but for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf has been open for awards and nominations. The 2019 Public Theater (Artistic Director, Oskar Eustis; Executive Director, Patrick Willingham) remount of the classic Ntozake Shange play, directed by Obie Award-winner Leah C. Gardiner, was honored recently for Outstanding Revival of a Play by the 2020 Outer Critics Circle Awards. The acknowledgment came on the heels of the production winning Outstanding Revival and Toni-Leslie James tying for the win for Outstanding Costume Design at the 35th Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Achievement Off-Broadway.

The show, which was choreographed by Camille A. Brown and which closed on December 15, 2019, after 79 sold-out performances, is favored to make the jump to a new, larger venue in the near future. The production was the first time the play had returned to the Public since 1976.

Recently the Off-Broadway Alliance Awards nominated the show for Best Play Revival.

The piece has been nominated for four Drama Desk Awards-for the Public for Outstanding Revival of a Play, for Brown for Outstanding Choreography, for Martha Redbone for Outstanding Music in a Play and for James for Outstanding Costume Design for a Play. Winners will be announced digitally at the 65th Annual Drama Desk Awards on Sunday, May 31.

The Public Theater was nominated for Best Revival of a Play for the production by the Drama League, the nation's oldest theatrical honors in the nation. The League also nominated Okwui Okpokwasili for a Distinguished Performance Award. Winners will be announced via Livestream in June.

The for colored girls cast included Sasha Allen (Lady in Blue), Celia Chevalier (Lady in Brown), Danaya Esperanza (Lady in Orange), Jayme Lawson (Lady in Red), Adrienne C. Moore (Lady in Yellow), Okpokwasili (Lady in Green), Alexandria Wailes (Lady in Purple), and Renata Eastlick, Jubil Khan and D. Woods (Understudies).