It was a defining moment in African-American theater when Ntozake Shange’s choreopoem for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf hit Broadway in the late 1970s. A lyrical collection of narrative, poetry and music performed by seven women, colored girls was unlike anything most theater audiences had ever witnessed. You’ll get a chance to see it again when Houston Community College presents the play in a limited two-week run. colored girls takes on love, heartbreak, rage, rape, racism, sexism, classism and a host of other isms. The actors, each identified only by the color of her dress (the woman in red, green, purple, blue, yellow, brown and orange), take the audience on a roller coaster of emotions. From the opening poem dedicating the performance to every woman who has “forgotten the sound of her own voice,” to the life–affirming last line, “i found god in myself and i loved her fiercely,” colored girls is a powerful theater experience. 8 p.m. Thursday to today. Theater One, 3517 Austin. For information, call 713-718-6570 or visit ccollege.hccs.edu/instru/fineart/INDEX.HTM. $5 to $8.

Oct. 11-13, 8 p.m., 2007

This article appears in Oct 11-17, 2007.