''spell #7'', or ''spell #7: geechee jibara quik magic trance manual for technologically stressed third world people'', is a
choreopoem written for the stage by
Ntozake Shange
Ntozake Shange ( ;
FilmReference.com. Retrieved October 27, 2018. October 18, 1948 â October 27, 2018) ...
and first performed in 1979.
The story is about a group of black friends who are actors, musicians, and performers. In a series of dreamlike vignettes and poetic monologues, they commiserate about the difficulties they face as black artists. The piece is framed by the narrator, lou, a magician who wants to use his magic to help the characters come to terms with their blackness and rejoice in their identities: "i'm fixin you up good/ fixin you up good & colored / & you gonna be colored all yr life / & you gonna love it/ bein colored/ all yr life/ colored & love it / love it/ bein colored. SPELL #7."
The set design calls for a "huge black-face mask" to dominate the stage, and minstrel masks are worn in the opening. These images put frustrations of the characters in conversation with the history of racism in theater, as the images of "grotesque, larger than life misrepresentation"
call forth
minstrel show
The minstrel show, also called minstrelsy, was an American form of racist theatrical entertainment developed in the early 19th century.
Each show consisted of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music performances that depicted people spe ...
s and
Blackface
Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup used predominantly by non-Black people to portray a caricature of a Black person.
In the United States, the practice became common during the 19th century and contributed to the spread of racial stereo ...
. ''spell #7'' culminates in a repetition of lou's refrain, with all the cast members singing together.
Performance and publication history
''spell #7'' was first produced It was also produced at
Crossroads Theatre (New Jersey) under the direction of
Dean Irby and choreography by
Dyane Harvey-Salaam. In 1979 as part of
Joseph Papp
Joseph Papp (born Joseph Papirofsky; June 22, 1921 â October 31, 1991) was an American theatrical producer and director. He established The Public Theater in what had been the Astor Library Building in Lower Manhattan. There Papp created a y ...
's
New York Shakespeare Festival
Shakespeare in the Park (or Free Shakespeare in the Park) is a theatrical program that stages productions of Shakespearean plays at the Delacorte Theater, an open-air theater in New York City's Central Park. The theater and the productions are ...
it was restaged. It was directed by
Oz Scott
Osborne Scott (born September 16, 1949) is an American film director, television director, television producer and theatre director. He is most known for ''Mr. Boogedy'', the award-winning short film.
Life and career
Born in Hampton, Virginia, ...
and choreographed by
Dianne McIntyre
Dianne McIntyre (born July 18, 1946) is an American dancer, choreographer, and teacher. Her notable works include ''Their Eyes Were Watching God: A Dance Adventure in Southern Blues (A Choreodrama)'', an adaptation of Zora Neal Hurston's novel ''T ...
, with original music by
David Murray and
Butch Morris. The cast included
Mary Alice
Mary Alice Smith (December 3, 1936 â July 27, 2022), known professionally as Mary Alice, was an American television, film, and stage actress. Alice was known for her roles as Leticia "Lettie" Bostic on the sitcom ''A Different World'' (1987â ...
,
Avery Brooks
Avery Franklin Brooks (born October 2, 1948) is an American actor, director, singer, narrator and educator. He is best known for his television roles as Captain Benjamin Sisko on ''Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'', as Hawk on '' Spenser: For Hire'' ...
,
LaTanya Richardson
LaTanya Richardson Jackson ( Richardson; born October 21, 1949) is an American actress. She began her career appearing in off-Broadway productions, before playing supporting roles on television and film.
Richardson has appeared in films includi ...
,
Reyno,
Dyane Harvey-Salaam,
Larry Marshall,
Laurie Carlos
Laurie Dorothea Carlos (nÊe Smith; January 25, 1949 â December 29, 2016) was an American actress and avant-garde performance artist, playwright and theater director. She was also known for her work mentoring emerging artists in the theater.
...
and
Ellis E. Williams. During the play's run
Samuel L. Jackson
Samuel Leroy Jackson (born December 21, 1948) is an American actor and producer. One of the most widely recognized actors of his generation, the films in which he has appeared have collectively grossed over $27 billion worldwide, making him ...
and
Jack Landron also made appearances.
It first opened as a free workshop, under the title ''Spell #7: A Geechee Quick Magic Trance Manual.''
After receiving good reviews the production was moved up to the Anspacher Stage at
The Public Theater
The Public Theater is a New York City arts organization founded as the Shakespeare Workshop in 1954 by Joseph Papp, with the intention of showcasing the works of up-and-coming playwrights and performers.Epstein, Helen. ''Joe Papp: An American Li ...
.
natalie's sharp monologue in the final act about her hypothetical life as a white woman was cut from this revised version, and Shange herself acted in a scene as sue-jean, a conflicted and violent mother.
Her performance had "an unforgettable quality of coming from inside."
After the New York run, ''spell #7'' went on to be performed by other companies. Some productions include one in 1982 at Clark College,
another in 1982 during the Philadelphia Black Theater Festival,
one in 1986 from the Avante Theater Company in Philadelphia,
a 1991 performance at the
Studio Theatre (Washington, D.C.)
The Studio Theatre is a non-profit theater production company located in the 14th Street corridor of Washington, D.C. It produces contemporary plays in a four-stage complex. Stages include the Metheny, the Mead and Milton, and Stage 4, a black ...
,
and a 1996 production at
Spelman College
Spelman College is a private, historically black, women's liberal arts college in Atlanta, Georgia. It is part of the Atlanta University Center academic consortium in Atlanta. Founded in 1881 as the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary, Spelman re ...
.
The choreopoem was published in 1981 in ''Three Pieces'', a collection of Shange's theater works. In addition to ''spell #7'', the book contains ''a photograph: lovers in motion'' and ''boogie woogie landscapes'', and a foreword written by Shange.
''spell #7'' was also printed in the 1986 anthology ''9 Plays by Black Women,'' alongside works by
Beah Richards
Beulah Elizabeth Richardson (July 12, 1920 – September 14, 2000), known professionally as Beah Richards and Bea Richards, was an American actress of stage, screen, and television. She was also a poet, playwright, author and activist.
Rich ...
,
Lorraine Hansberry
Lorraine Vivian Hansberry (May 19, 1930 â January 12, 1965) was a playwright and writer. She was the first African-American female author to have a play performed on Broadway. Her best-known work, the play ''A Raisin in the Sun'', highlig ...
, and
Alice Childress
Alice Childress (October 12, 1916 â August 14, 1994) was an American novelist, playwright, and actress, acknowledged as "the only African-American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic ...
, among others.
Both of these versions restore the natalie monologue that was cut from the Anspacher performance.
Style
Like Shange's more well known choreopoem ''
'', ''spell #7'' makes use of non-standard grammar and eschews generally accepted rules of capitalization and punctuation. The most recent editions of ''Three Pieces'' do not capitalize the title of the choreopoem or any of the names of the characters.
Though the piece follows the structure of a three-act play, it utilizes elements that are uncommon in most modern traditional dramas, such as extended monologues. The story takes place in a bar, and the setting does not change. Most of the action unfolds indirectly, when the characters narrate stories about themselves and their friends, and occasionally they take on multiple personas at once. In the foreword to ''Three Pieces'' Shange explains why she avoids more traditional methods of playwriting, citing motivations related to her Black identity. "For too long now" she says "Afro-Americans have been duped by the same artificial aesthetics that plague our white counterparts/ "the perfect play," as we know it to be/ a truly European framework for European psychology/ cannot function efficiently for those of us from this hemisphere."
Characters
In order of appearance, the characters are:
* lou, a magician
* alec, an actor
* dahlia, a young singer and dancer
* eli, a bartender
* bettina, dahlia's fellow chorus dancer
* lily, an out-of-work actress working in the bar
* natalie, an unsuccessful performer
* ross, a guitar player and singer
* maxine, an actress
Critical reception
Many responses to ''spell #7'' praise its poetic language and emotional depth. One reviewer called Shange's words "lyrical, wry, painful, and comically prosaic by turn."
Another reviewer wrote that Shange is "incredible in her uncanny ability to capture the precision and intensity of the moment," but then went on to criticize her style for being "distracting and predictable."
In a 1980 addition to the foreword, Shange writes about one reviewer, who criticized her for writing "with intentions of outdoing the white man in the acrobatic distortions of English."
In reply, Shange says that he "waz absolutely correct," she, in writing ''spell #7'' aimed to "attack deform n maim the language that i waz taught to hate myself in...i haveta fix my tool to my needs/ i have to take it apart to the bone/ so that the malignancies/ fall away/ leaving us a space to literally create our own image."
References
External links
Ntozake Shange Papers, 1966-2016; Barnard Archives and Special Collections, Barnard Library, Barnard College{{Ntozake Shange
Plays about race and ethnicity
African-American plays
Plays by Ntozake Shange
Literature by African-American women