Black Pearl Sings!
A Musical Journey
by Frank Higgins
directed by Benny Sato Ambush
January 25 – February 15, 2009
"Moving, funny and intellectually compelling, this production is one of the best anywhere so far this season."
– Houston Press
The song is the story.
In the midst of the Great Depression, Susannah Mullally travels the country, recording lost traditional songs for the Library of Congress. Hoping to find the one song that will bring her long-awaited recognition, she discovers Pearl Johnson in a Texas prison. With a soulful voice and a wealth of African-American spiritual songs, Pearl seeks information and a chance at freedom. Now each woman must decide how much of herself she is willing to give to get what she wants in return.
Running time: 2 hours and 20 minutes, including one 15 minute intermission
Click here to read Brian Rose's interview with director Benny Sato Ambush and playwright Frank Higgins from the Burlington Times-News.
Click here to listen to Bradley George's interview with Frank from 88.5 WFDD's Triad Arts Up Close.
Click here to listen to Frank Stasio's interview with Frank and Benny from 91.5 WUNC's The State of Things.
Sponsored by |
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Production Sponsors |
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CastSusannah
Pearl
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Creative TeamPlaywright
Director
Music Director
Scenic Designer
Costume Designer
Lighting Designer
Sound Designer
Casting
Dramaturg
Stage Manager
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Biographies
Cast
Creative Team
| Frank Higgins (Playwright) is the author of The Sweet By ‘n’ By, which was produced with Blythe Danner and Gwyneth Paltrow. His play Gunplay has been produced across the country and had several scenes read on Capitol Hill prior to Congress’s passage of the Brady Bill. His play Miracles has been produced at major regional theaters, including Jack O’Brien’s Old Globe Theater in San Diego and was optioned for Broadway. His musical play WMKS: Where Music Kills Sorrow has also been produced at major regional theaters. The Taste Test began as a reading at the Ashland New Plays Festival in Oregon, then received a reading at the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York with Tony Award® winner Judith Ivey, and then debuted at Virginia Stage Company. His play Never Say Die was a finalist for the Eugene O’Neill New Play Festival. His plays for young audiences include The Slave Dancer’s Choice, which debuted at the Omaha Theatre for Young People. He was later commissioned by the same theater to write Anansi the Spider and The Middle Passage, which toured nationally. He is also the author of The Country of the Blind, an adaptation of the short story by H.G. Wells. Mr. Higgins teaches at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. | |
| Benny Sato Ambush (Director) Currently: Distinguished Producing Director in Residence, Emerson Stage, Boston. Formerly: Producing Director, Oakland (CA) Ensemble Theatre; Associate Artistic Director, San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater; Acting Artistic Director, Providence, RI’s Rites and Reason Theatre Company; Co-Artistic Director, San Francisco Bay Area Playwrights Festival; Director-In-Residence, Florida Stage; Producing Artistic Director, TheatreVirginia; Associate Artistic Director; Anna Deavere Smith’s Institute on the Arts & Civic Dialogue, Harvard University. Other regional directing: Old Globe Theatre; Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Portland; South Coast Repertory; Alabama Shakespeare Festival; Arizona Theatre Company; Magic Theatre; Geva Theatre; Playwrights Horizons; Ford’s Theatre; Philadelphia Festival Theatre for New Plays; Lincoln Center Theater Institute; Heart of America Shakespeare Festival; International Theatre Festival of Chicago; The New Harmony Project; Alaska Theatre of Youth; the National Black Theatre Festival; The Lost Colony (2005). Teaching: North Carolina School of the Arts; American Conservatory Theater Conservatory; California State University, Monterey Bay; Colorado College; Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya; Brown University; University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Florida Atlantic University, Emerson College. | |
| Laurelyn Dossett (Music Director) Singer/songwriter Laurelyn Dossett was born in Birmingham, Alabama. Her collaborations with Triad Stage and Artistic Director, Preston Lane, include the summer 2008 hit Bloody Blackbeard and Triad Stage’s 2006 world premiere production of Brother Wolf. One of the songs from Brother Wolf, “Anna Lee” appears on Levon Helm’s Grammy-winning 2007 release Dirt Farmer. She is the 2004 winner of Merlefest’s Chris Austin Songwriting Contest for her gospel song, “Come by Here,” and has taught songwriting at the Augusta Heritage Center. In 1997 she founded the band Polecat Creek with singing partner Kari Sickenberger; they have three CDs: Ordinary Seasons, Salt Sea Bound and Leaving Eden. Leaving Eden’s title track, about the loss of textile jobs in Eden, NC, has been featured in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and on the BBC. She lives in Greensboro with her husband and three daughters. | |
| Robin Vest (Scenic Designer) This is Robin’s seventh season with Triad Stage. New York credits include: Hoodoo Love (The Cherry Lane); A Very Common Procedure (MCC); Pen (Playwrights Horizons). Regional: Hansel and Gretel (Washington National Opera); Ariadne auf Naxos (Utah Opera); The Bluest Eye, Yellowman, String of Pearls, God’s Man in Texas (PlayMakers Repertory Company); Yale Repertory Theatre; Dallas Theater Center; Williamstown Theater Festival; resident designer of the Janiec Opera Company at Brevard Music Center for six seasons. | |
| Kelsey Hunt (Costume Designer) is Resident Designer and Costume Shop Manager at Triad Stage. Past productions include: Beautiful Star, Bell, Book and Candle, The Night of the Iguana, Bloody Blackbeard, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Sleuth, The Little Foxes, Tobacco Road, Noises Off, The Old Settler, The Diary of Anne Frank, The Matchmaker, Brother Wolf, On Golden Pond, A Streetcar Named Desire (honorable mention, best production design, Independent Weekly), Das Barbecü, A Moon for the Misbegotten and Bus Stop. Kelsey has worked with UNCG Theater, New York’s Glimmerglass Opera House, Firebrand Theory Theater Company, The Lortel Theater, and Lisa Zinni (associate designer for Broadway’s Rent). | |
| John Wolf (Lighting Designer) Triad Stage: 22 productions including the world premieres of Bloody Blackbeard, Brother Wolf, Debunked and Beautiful Star. Regional: North Carolina Shakespeare Festival, Mill Mountain Theatre. University Theatre: UNCG, University of Florida, University of Tennessee, University of Nebraska Opera, plus designs at Lion Theatre, Center Stage, Trinity Theatre, Symphony Space and Lincoln Center in New York. John is a Professor of Theatre at UNCG. Education: MFA, University of Alabama; The Julliard School of Music. | |
| Gèneva B. Conaway Bennison (Sound Designer) Triad Stage: Bell, Book & Candle, Doubt. Regional/Local: Les Misérables, The Producers, All Shook Up, Jesus Christ Superstar (Maine State Music Theater); Beauty and the Beast, Smoke on the Mountain (The Little Theatre of Winston-Salem); The Devil and Kate, Burn This, Rabbit Hole (University of North Carolina School of the Arts). New York: Ballet Hispanico, Manhattan Theatre Club. Education: BA, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. Currently pursuing an MFA at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. | |
| Cindi Rush Casting (Casting) New York: The Time of Mendel’s Trouble, Peaceman, Jacques Brel, Six Dance Lessons In Six Weeks, The Thing About Men, Showtune, I Sing, Urinetown, Say Goodnight Gracie. Regional: Triad Stage, Act II Playhouse, Arena Stage, Goodman, Cape Cod Theatre Project, NOHO Arts Center (including “Pest Control”, “Dorian” and “Ghost and Mrs. Muir”), Actors Theatre of Louisville Humanafest. Film: Offspring, Made For Each Other, Home Movie, Jack Ketchum’s: The Girl Next Door, Headspace, Funny Valentine, Master Class. Other: Hats (Denver, New Orleans, Chicago). Casting Society of America Member, Casting Consultant for National Alliance For Musical Theatre, Casting Consultant for NYU Graduate Program for Musical Theatre Writing. | |
| Drew Barker (Dramaturg) is a former Theatre and English teacher and is pleased to have joined Triad Stage as Artistic Associate. Regional: Assistant Director of five shows with Preston Lane at Triad Stage. Education: UNCG, BFA Theatre Education & English, Study Abroad at the University of Hull, and Undergraduate Research Assistantship in Greensboro Theatre History. | |
| Eric Tysinger* (Stage Manager) Triad Stage: Angel Street, Crumbs from the Table of Joy, Old Wicked Songs, North Star, Bloody Blackbeard, The Night of the Iguana, Bell, Book and Candle, and Beautiful Star. Off-Broadway: Elvis People. Regional: Dreamgirls, Annie Get Your Gun, Peter Pan (North Carolina Theatre) A Christmas Carol, Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, As You Like It (North Carolina Shakespeare Festival); Elvis People, Great Expectations (both world premieres, Mill Mountain Theatre). Education: BFA, UNCG. |
*Member of Actors Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States.
