Spell No. 7

spell #7 was first produced in 1979 as part of Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival.{{cite news|last=Eder|first=Richard|title=Stage: 'Spell #7' by Ntozake Shange: A Revised Version|newspaper=The New York Times|date=July 16, 1979|id={{ProQuest|120819135}}}} It was directed by Oz Scott and choreographed by Dianne McIntyre, with original music by David Murray and Butch Morris. The cast included Mary Alice, Avery Brooks, LaTanya Richardson, Reyno, Dyane Harvey-Salaam, Larry Marshall, Laurie Carlos and Ellis E. Williams. During the play's run, Samuel L. Jackson and Jack Landron also made appearances.{{cite book|last=Shange|first=Ntozake|title=Three Pieces|url=https://archive.org/details/threepieces00shan|url-access=registration|date=1981|publisher=St. Martin's Press|location=New York|isbn=0312078722|page=[https://archive.org/details/threepieces00shan/page/3 3]}} It first opened as a free workshop, under the title Spell #7: A Geechee Quick Magic Trance Manual.{{cite news|title=New Shange Choreopoem to be Given at the Public|newspaper=The New York Times|date=May 24, 1979|id={{ProQuest|120836546}}}} After receiving good reviews the production was moved up to the Anspacher Stage at The Public Theater. 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." It was also produced at Crossroads Theatre (New Jersey) under the direction of Dean Irby and choreography by Dyane Harvey-Salaam.

After the New York run, spell #7 went on to be performed by other companies. Some productions include ones in 1982 at Clark College,{{cite news|last=Byrd|first=William|title='Spell #7' at Clark|newspaper=Atlanta Daily World|date=February 12, 1982|id={{ProQuest|491576453}}}} during the Philadelphia Black Theater Festival,{{cite news|last=Womack|first=Liz|title=Ntozake Shange's 'Spell' has no magic|newspaper=Philadelphia Tribune|date=August 24, 1982|id={{ProQuest|532792158}}}}and at the Cauldron Experimental Theater in Boston;{{cite news |last1=Caldwell |first1=Gail |title=Soul on the rocks: Barflies are free |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_boston-phoenix_1982-09-28_11_39/page/n80/mode/1up |access-date=September 22, 2024 |work=The Boston Phoenix |date=September 28, 1982}} one in 1986 from the Avante Theater Company in Philadelphia;{{cite news|last=Dove-Morse|first=Pheralyn|title=Avante Theater Company presents 'Spell #7' by Ntozake Shange|newspaper=Philadelphia Tribune|date=March 4, 1986|id={{ProQuest|532885829}}}} a 1991 performance at the Studio Theatre (Washington, D.C.);{{cite news|last=Ross|first=Lloyd|title='Spell #7' Poetry in No Motion|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=May 7, 1991|id={{ProQuest|140515648}}}} and a 1996 production at Spelman College.{{cite news|title=Spelman Theater Presents Spell #7|newspaper=Atlanta Daily World|date=November 21, 1996|id={{ProQuest|491781784}}}}

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, Lorraine Hansberry, and Alice Childress, among others.{{cite book|last=Wilkerson|first=Margaret B.|title=9 Plays by Black Women|date=1986|publisher=Mentor, Penguin Books|location=New York|isbn=0451628209|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/9playsbyblackwom00wilk}} Both of these versions restore the natalie monologue that was cut from the Anspacher performance.

Like Shange's more well known choreopoem For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf, 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."

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

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."{{cite news|last=Eder|first=Richard|title=Miss Shange's Rousing Homilies|newspaper=The New York Times|date=July 22, 1979|id={{ProQuest|120803588}}}} 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."{{cite news|last=Bess|first=E. Tamu|title=Spell No. 7|newspaper=New York Amsterdam News|date=January 5, 1980|id={{ProQuest|226380351}}}} 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."

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[http://collections.barnard.edu/public/repositories/2/resources/377 Ntozake Shange Papers, 1966-2016; Barnard Archives and Special Collections, Barnard Library, Barnard College].{{Ntozake Shange}}

Category:1979 plays

Category:African-American plays

Category:Literature by African-American women

Category:Plays about race and ethnicity

Category:Plays by Ntozake Shange