BLACK PEARL SINGS! Comes to Florida Studio Theatre 

Florida Studio Theatre (FST) will present Black Pearl Sings!, an uplifting, historical drama about an unlikely bond, the preservation of musical heritage, and the human need for hope and healing. When two women from very different backgrounds are brought together by the power of music, each discovers that the other woman holds the key to everything they’ve been searching for. Called “Remarkable” and “Compelling” by The Chicago Tribune, Black Pearl Sings! by Frank Higgins begins playing June 28 in FST’s Gompertz Theatre.

“Black Pearl Sings! is incandescent,” said show director Kate Alexander, who was also at the helm of FST’s 2009 production of the stirring play. “When I re-read the script, I was moved, laughed out loud, and even got goosebumps. When that happens, it tells me that there are truths in the play that will move you to your core.”

Set in 1935 Depression-era Texas, Black Pearl Sings! tells the story of Susannah Mullally and Alberta “Pearl” Johnson. Susannah is an ambitious Library of Congress musicologist, determined to record undocumented slave songs, preserving them for generations to come. Pearl is an African American woman with a soulful voice, a steely spirit, and a sentence in a female prison. Pearl’s memory is a treasure-trove of unrecorded slave era songs – the answer to Susannah’s long search for undiscovered African American music. Susannah’s idea to share Pearl’s music with the world could mean the prisoner’s freedom – the answer to Pearl’s dream of being able to search for her missing daughter. But can Pearl hand over her ancestors’ songs without giving up something of herself?

CAST

Alice M. Gatling – Alberta “Pearl” Johnson

Rachel Moulton – Susannah Mullally

CREATIVE TEAM

Director – Kate Alexander

Scenic Design - Isabel A. Curley-Clay and Moriah Curley-Clay

Costume Design - Nia Safarr Banks

Costume Coordination - Suzie Sajec

Lighting Design - Ethan Vail

Sound Design -  and Louis Vetter Torres