Jasmine Guy

Known for her role as the spoiled college kid Whitley Gilbert on "A Different World," Jasmine Guy has had her share of successes over the years including a stint on Broadway and a successful album. Over the weekend, Guy added director to her resume.

Guy, now 46, made her directorial debut at the helm of Ntozake Shange's groundbreaking 1975 choreopoem, "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf" at Atlanta's 14th Street Playhouse.

"I'm having a ball. It's the perfect piece for me, because there's poetry and monologue and character" says Guy who jumped at the chance to direct the celebrated play which brought to the stage a perspective of what it was like to be female and black in the modern United States. "It's not like a musical where the pieces are set. So my challenge has been to make the music and dance organic — just like it's part of our culture.

Although Guy was very excited about the play, there was one change that she felt was needed to make the play more current to today's issues. "I really wanted a multi-generational cast. I didn't want everybody under 30. As I explained to them, we interpret pain differently. Yes, some of us are hardened and bitter and callous. But some of us are hurt and open and vulnerable. And some of us are wounded and do not heal: We are broken. And some of us heal to the love of other people. So I have to be sure that these ways of being in pain come through."

According to Access Atlanta, Guy's adaptation of "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf" will run through August 31st at Atlanta's 14th Street Playhouse in association with IKAM Productions.