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.), and a 1996 production at Spelman College. 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. Both of these versions restore the natalie monologue that was cut from the Anspacher performance. Style 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." 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