“For Colored Girls” is comprised of seven women who represented a different shade of the rainbow. The colors are brown, red, yellow, white, green, orange and blue. Their costumes and make-up transformed each of them and were symbolic of the color their character embodied. The ensemble acting made all of their roles of equal importance, without one dominating the other. These women together formed a bond through their various adversities, gradually taking them from strangers to acquaintances. From an objective view, the audience is allowed to simply observe the events as they take place (Goodykoontz & Jacobs, 2011, pg. 82) chronologically. Throughout the movie during some of the conflicting and traumatic scenes, one of the women recites a poem to signify and release the emotion being felt at that time.
Tyler Perry’s movie “For Colored Girls” was inspired by a stage play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf, written by Ntozake Shange’s. The story was adapted from a play that consists of monologues and chorepoems, which combines dance and poetry so that each complements the other in a highly dramatic way. The term first appeared in this play with hopes of creating a new art form that was different from traditional poetry. Shange developed the form, which doesn't contain traditional elements of plot and characters; it instead focuses on creating an emotional response within the audience (Nathan, 2001).”
The decision to bring this play to film caused much controversy because of the difference between film and stage acting. Although many would agree that Perry’s movie adaptation captured the essence and purpose of the play with its drama, mystery, humor, tragedy and compassion, many still preferred ...
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... those who are aware of someone who has experienced these traumas. These tragedies and many other hardships that women suffer through are what bind us together; not where we live or what we possess. Our differences should enable us to lean and depend on one another when life is too much to endure.
Works Cited
Anderson, M. (2010, Nov 4) For Colored Girls: Tyler Perry Mangles Ntozake Shange's
Classic Retrieved November 27, 2010 from
http://www.dallasobserver.com/2010- 11-04/film/for-colored-girls-tyler-perry-
mangles-ntozake-shange-s-classic/
Goodykoontz, B., & Jacobs, C. P. (2011). Film: From Watching to Seeing. San Diego,
CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. Retrieved from the Course Digital Materials
System: https://content.ashford.edu
Nathan, L. (2001, Aug 28) Choreopoem. Retrieved November 24, 2010 from
http://everything2.com/title/Choreopoem
It is imperative to understand the significance of the profound effects these elements have on the audience’s response to the play. Without effective and accurate embodiments of the central themes, seeing a play becomes an aimless experience and the meaning of the message is lost. Forgiveness and redemption stand as the central themes of the message in The Spitfire Grill. Actors communicate character development through both nonverbal and verbal cues; their costumes serve as a visual representation of this development by reflecting the personal transformation of each character. In the case of The Spitfire Grill, set design is cut back to allow for the audience’s primary focus to be on the actors and their story. Different from set design, the use of sound and lights in The Spitfire Grill, establishes the mood for the play. In other words, every theatrical element in a play has a purpose; when befittingly manipulated, these elements become the director’s strongest means of expressing central themes, and therefore a means of achieving set objectives. Here again, The Spitfire Grill is no exception. With the support of these theatrical elements, the play’s themes of forgiveness and redemption shine as bright as the moon on
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