Jasmine Guy is back in the director's chair calling the shots in the theater revivial of Ntozake Shange's "for colored girls..." We caught up with the mother and veteran actress after the play's opening night to find out why she handpicked Robin Givens and Nicole Ari Parker for the cast and what she is enjoying most about her life post-divorce.

ESSENCE.COM: Congrats on your return to the director's chair following the success of helming the production last summer. How was the experience this time and how have you changed over the last year?
JASMINE GUY: I've been planning this since last year and it's like birthing a baby. The energy of "for colored girls..." continues to catch 30 years after it was written, and this time it's something special. From last year to this summer, the more I experience as a woman, including being divorced and being a mother for ten years, the more I understand the piece. I've been in Atlanta for five months and done three plays. Working with directors, especially Kenny Leon, I have continued to grow and learn.

ESSENCE.COM: What attracted you to Robin Givens and Nicole Ari Parker to add them to the cast?
GUY: I knew the talent that I already had and with the new infusion of Nicole and Robin it was a great fit. Nicole lives in Atlanta and had come to all the plays I've done. I loved her energy, joy and accessibility, and as an actor I knew she could handle the material since she came from theater. She was stunning and untouched by that and her spirit was soaring. With Robin, I didn't know her, but just knew of her. I thought she needed this like I needed it. I told her to do this for herself so she could have the experience and be awakened. She answered the call and that moved me. We don't gain anything without taking risks in our lives. As actors, we can work on a shallow level and be accepted as good. But I want to be great like the women I respect in the field, and all of them have come from theater, from Angela Bassett to Ruby Dee.

ESSENCE.COM: That's right. And thanks to syndication, a new generation is being introduced to you as Whitley Gilbert on a "Different World." What would she be up to these days and does your daughter watch?
GUY: My daughter saw an episode where Whitley and Dwayne kiss and she was just screaming and yelling "eww." She prefers watching things she was around for, so when people say how the show changed their lives, she wants to hear about my later work. If Whitley were around, I'm sure she would have changed as we all do, having been married, having a child and balancing a career with family, the issues we deal with as women, sometimes taking on so much it can lead to neglect. And I think self-neglect would have freaked her out. Today, she would be finding herself again, which a lot of us in our forties are experiencing.

ESSENCE.COM: Great insight. When we talked last summer you were at the end of the divorce. Have you made your way back on the dating scene?
GUY: I might be about to be ready. There are certain things I would like calmer in me before I start seeing someone in that way. But I certainly have been going out and having a good time, and really just reuniting with my friends. I lost touch with a lot of people and missed them.

ESSENCE.COM: Have you thought of what's next after the show wraps?
GUY: I am enjoying this moment. It's enough and an amazing experience. You have to be open to what the future holds, as I never thought I would be directing. Now I am looking forward to hopefully traveling with the show and going to Africa, including Ghana and South Africa, and using local artists in the play. Dance and music is a part of how we tell our stories, like in this play. It's part of the Black experience. It's all one language. We are a sensual, passionate people. That's being a colored girl.

Check out "for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf" at Southwest Arts Center in Atlanta, July 12- August 9.