Black Pearl Sings! at Northlight

Dec 16, 2011
Black Pearl Sings

Northlight Theatre, under the direction of Artistic Director BJ Jones and Executive Director Timothy J. Evans, presents Black Pearl Sings! by Frank Higgins, directed by Steve Scott. A powerful new play featuring Northlight favorites E. Faye Butler (Jeff Award-winner for Northlight's Ella and Dinah Was) and Susie McMonagle (Northlight's Snapshots, national tour of Billy Elliott and Mamma Mia!). The production runs January 13 - February 19, 2012 at Northlight Theatre, 9501 Skokie Blvd.

Featuring beautiful, a cappella renditions of rare American folk songs, this play with music tells the Depression-era story of two extraordinary women dependant on one another to gain acceptance in a divided society. When Susannah, a song collector for the Library of Congress, overhears Pearl singing in a Texas prison, she will pull every string possible to introduce the woman with the silky voice and steely spirit to the world.

BJ Jones comments, "Black Pearl Sings! provides us a glimpse of two striking women in the economic torpor of the Depression who find strength, purpose and fulfillment through the bond of music, reaffirming the astonishing power of art in the face of the financial ruin of the time. One of the reasons for choosing Black Pearl Sings! was this very notion - that art survives, even thrives, through the need to seek succor and inspiration when the times turn turbulent."

The designers are Jack Magaw (Set Design), Emily McConnell (Costume Design), Sarah Hughey (Lighting Design) and Christopher Kriz (Sound Design).

Tickets for Black Pearl Sings!, $25-60, are available by phone at 847.673.6300, or online at northlight.org.