Like the Lifetime movie of the same name, Single Black Female, opening Friday, Feb. 20, at South Puget Sound Community College, is about the intertwined lives of two women.
But the South Puget Sound Community College Theatre Collective production is not a stage version of the 2022 thriller about a woman trying to steal another’s life. Rather, this Female, a comedy by Lisa B. Thompson, centers on two close friends, both successful single Black women, dealing with society’s expectations— chiefly, that what each needs is a man.
“It’s funny,” said Raessa Patterson, the SPSCC alumna directing the show. “It’s bold. It gives us a chance to laugh at the stereotypes that surround us, but it also reminds us that those stereotypes don’t define us.”
“The play … is a socially significant and very entertaining two-woman show that manages to be simultaneously self-deprecating and proud,” Anita Gates wrote in a 2006 New York Times review (https://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/20/theater/reviews/brainy-black-women-still-looking-for-love-in-single-black.html)
“Single Black Female celebrates Black women, inviting us to laugh, reflect, confront and feel together,” said Lauren Love, the college’s theater professor. “This playful comedy is a lift for our spirits when we need one.”
Love invited Patterson, who graduated from the college’s Fine and Performing Arts program in 2025, to direct a play. “Raessa Patterson has been one of those dream students who has a passion and talent for creating theater,” Love said. “Her insights and interpretations are unique, and she has a wonderful sense of comedy.”
“When I was asked to direct, I was like, ‘Yes. Can I pick?’ ” said Patterson of Lacey, a military veteran who grew up doing community theater in Washington, D.C. She wanted to direct a show that represented the Black experience — the kind of show she’d usually need to go to Tacoma or Seattle to see — while being broadly relatable.
“I went through hundreds of plays, and this one stuck out,” she said. “It’s about women repeatedly finding themselves in spaces where the validity of their success is challenged. … It’s about being single, highly educated, accomplished, cultured — but still getting this pressure to be something other than happily single.”
The audience will get a close-up view of the switches — and the rest of the action — because the Black Box will be set up in the round, with seating surrounding the stage area.
“This is the first time that the stage will be in the round here, so the audience will become part of the experience,” Patterson said. “This way the audience will feel like they are in the space with the characters.”
Photos courtesy of South Puget Sound Community College.
WHAT:
Single Black Female
WHEN:
7:30 p.m. Feb. 20, 21, 27 and 28 and 2 p.m. Feb. 23 and March 1
WHERE:
The Black Box at The Kenneth J. Minnaert Center for the Arts, South Puget Sound Community College, 2011 Mottman Rd. SW, Olympia
TICKETS:
$12 donation suggested; free to faculty, staff and students
LEARN MORE:
https://spscc.edu/about/news-awards/spscc-theatre-collective-presents-single-black-female