The University of Tennessee

Clarence Brown Theatre»

Welcome!

Preview

by Terry Silver-Alford

A Way Up and a Way Out: Black Pearl Sings!

Playwright Frank Higgins based Black Pearl Sings! on the true historical collaboration between ethnomusicologist John Avery Lomax (1867-1948) and guitarist Huddie “Lead Belly” Leadbetter (1888-1949). Lomax was searching and recording original rural ethnic music that included country, bluegrass, Black spirituals, work songs as well as slave songs. Lomax was commissioned by the Library of Congress to record these unique songs that he found on farms, churches, prisons and jute-joints throughout the rural Southern states.

Higgins decided to expand his story to include the women’s struggle in the 1930′s. The Lomax character mentioned above is portrayed as a White Ivy League rich woman – Susannah Mullally, and is presented as an aggressive ethnomusicologist at a Texas prison interviewing Black women with strong singing voices as she searches for slave and pre-slave songs to be recorded. She hopes that by making and recording these unique songs she will ultimately land a teaching position in an Ivy League school. She encounters the rich-voiced but hostile Alberta “Pearl” Johnson who is in prison for murdering a man suspected of raping her 12 year old daughter.  Each woman has an agenda–Susannah in finding old ethnic songs to record and Pearl in finding her lost now 22 year old daughter.

The early scenes that depict the determination and strength of each woman are marvelously played out as each establishes her own rules for the relationship. Pearl will only sing unheard slave and work songs if Susannah works to find Pearl’s daughter. The two eventually unite to allow each to become “successful” on each other’s terms. Susannah’s plan includes getting Pearl parole and taking her to New York City to get her “discovered” in Harlem. Pearl, who loves to sing, realizes that fame and the money will give her the means to find her lost daughter.

Black Pearl Sings! is a drama with songs, sung as a cappella renditions of rare American folk songs. Alberta “Pearl” Johnson will be played by UT Assistant Professor of Acting Tracey Copeland Halter. The role of Susannah is played by Chicago based actress Susan Shunk.  Music here is a bonding metaphor for two striking women determined to control their lives on their own terms. The play also reaffirms the grand power of art (music here) to stimulate the human spirit during bleak economic times.  The inspirational quality of music to soothe folks during turbulent times is captured effectively in Black Pearl Sings!.  We witness the special bond of respect that these two women experience when united by a common bond and noble purpose. They are survivors determined to leave their mark on the world.
This is a gem of a play that will renew your faith in humanity.