To celebrate Mother's Day, BlackPoet Ventures will present For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/ When The Rainbow Is Enuf, an Obie and Tony award-winning 1975 production by poet-playwright Ntozake Shange. Co-sponsored by ASU Kerr Cultural Center, the event will be during Mother's Day weekend at 8p.m. Friday, May 9, and Saturday, May 10. The venue is located at 6110 N. Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale, AZ 85253.

Combining dance and song, the play – a series of 20 poems known as a choreopoem – is performed by a cast of seven nameless women each recognized only by a color. The characters share strength of unity as they strive for and develop a sense of self in the face of physical and emotional abuse, rejection, loneliness and pain.

The timeless play, which closes out BlackPoet Ventures' third performance season, will be directed by Rod Ambrose and choreographed by Bridgette Knox and Cescily Washington. Washington, director of Mesa's Franklin Arts Academy, also serves as assistant director.

Because of the overwhelming interest to be involved in the Valley production, two full casts have been set and will be featured in both shows.

A revival of Ntozake Shange's for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf  – a 1977 Tony Award nominee for Best Play – will arrive at a Broadway theatre to be announced this summer. While for colored girls... was remounted off-Broadway at American Place Theatre in Summer 2000, this will be its first Broadway revival.

According to a casting notice, previews of the Obie-winning drama will begin on or about July 15 with an opening on or about Aug. 2. Grammy-winning R&B singer-songwriter India.Arie will head the company; no other roles have been cast.

Shirley Jo Finney will direct the production, which will feature choreography by three-time Tony winner Hinton Battle. Whoopi Goldberg and DreamTeam Entertainment Group (Victor Walker, Harold Wheeler and Ned Goldstein) are the executive producers of the upcoming Broadway run.

The 1975 Obie-winning production played The Public Theater and jumped to Broadway 1976-78, with playwright Shange playing one of seven women who "reveal themselves, their lives, loves, hardships, and ultimately their discovery of strength and love."

The original Broadway company also featured Laurie Carlos, Risë Collins, Aku Kadogo, Janet League and Paula Moss. The production was nominated for a 1977 Best Play Tony Award, and actress Trazana Beverley – who also was featured in the 1982 Oz Scott-directed television adaptation of the production with Carlos, Kadogo and Shange – won a Tony in the category of Best Actress in a Featured Role (Play).

India.Arie has won two Grammys: for Best Urban/Alternative Performance for "Little Things" and Best R&B Album for Voyage to India. She has been nominated for 14 other Grammys.