Pictured: FST’s 2009 production of Black Pearl Sings! Photo by Amy Steinmet.z.

Florida Studio Theatre (FST) is proud to 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. 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?

Pictured: FST’s 2009 production of Black Pearl Sings! Photo by Amy Steinmet.z.