Black Pearl Sings!

Frank Higgins' play features two extraordinary women in Depression-era Texas. An ambitious Library of Congress musicologist, searching for the African roots of slave songs, discovers the musical gifts of an African-American woman with a soulful voice and steely spirit.

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Black Pearl Sings! is a powerful evocative story of how they must work together to fulfill the goals of both these women. Theirs is a journey of race and reconciliation, religion and tenacity, the historical search for the origins of indigenous folk music, the preservation of the musical heritage of a people, and ultimately of healing and understanding.

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Based on legendary folk singer/guitarist Huddie William Ledbetter “Lead Belly” and his work with LoC folklorists John and Alan Lomax, the work adds the additional dimension of gender and the courage it took for women to break outside of their jails.

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Thomas W. Jones II directs, whose production last year of the play in San Diego won critical and popular acclaim. Local singer-actress Roz White reprises her lead role from a 2016 production at MetroStage in this drama with over 20 American folk and spiritual songs and “inhabits the role of Alberta 'Pearl' Johnson like it was created for her blessed with a voice that resonates and captures the soul of the music with a strong gospel uplift.” Susan Galbraith steps out of her New Music-Theatre Artistic Director role, returning to the stage in the supporting role of Librarian Susannah.

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After each show,we will have a post-show discussion to provide audience members the opportunity to deepen their experience by engaging with other group members in an informal gathering and sharing in discussions to understand the deeper intentions of the show’s creators.