It Hasn’t Always Been This Way

Members of the cast of why i had to dance, the choreopoem by Ntozake Shange and directed Dianne McIntyre with Oberlin College students in 2012. Photo by John Seyfried. No photos of It Hasn’t Always Been This Way are currently available.

From a profile in Backstage, February 27, 2007

The centerpiece of New Federal Theatre’s two-week Ntozake Shange retrospective is an updated revival of this 1981 one-act choreopoem. Like 1975’s For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf, which first brought her to prominence, the nonlinear, kaleidoscopic work combines poetry, prose monologues, and modern dance in a lyrical, incantatory outpouring of primal emotion, exploring African-American life from the perspective of its resilient women.

Presented as part of the 2006-07 Season

Play opened February 21, 2007 at the Castillo Theatre

Artist Credits

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Credit Artist Photo
Playwright Ntozake Shange Ntozake Shange
Director Dianne McIntyre
Musical Director Olu Dara
Choreographer Dianne McIntyre
Actor Shireen Dixon
Actor Nina Domingue
Actor Petronia Paley
Actor Charles E. Wallace
All 2006-07 Season productions: