BWW Preview: Spinning Tree Theatre Brings BLACK PEARL SINGS! to Kansas City

Spinning Tree Theatre brings the Kansas City premiere of Black Pearl Sings! to the stage of the Just Off Broadway Theatre March 6. Written by Kansas City playwright Frank Higgins the production marks two firsts for Spinning Tree Theatre. Black Pearl Sings! represents their first production of a local playwright and the first time they have utilized a director outside of the Spinning Tree Theatre.

Black Pearl Sings! received acclaim after productions in Chicago, Washington, D.C., Houston, Memphis, Raleigh, Cincinnati, Portland, and Vienna, Austria. Higgins a member of the first class of University of Missouri at Kansas City's Professional Writing Program has published a number of plays, books of poetry, and books of haiku. His play The Sweet By 'N' By was produced at the Williamstown Theatre Festival and starred Gwyneth Paltrow and her Tony Award winning mother Blythe Danner.

Set during the Great Depression, Black Pearl Sings! is the tale of two very different women. Susannah is a white researcher on a mission recording hymns sung around the days of slavery. Her hope is to find the one song old enough that will secure her a position with an Ivy League College. Pearl is a prisoner in a Texas prison whose daughter has come up missing. She formulates a plan, using Susannah and her musical heritage, to win her release from the prison to look for her daughter. Black Pearl Sings! features beautiful a cappella renditions of little-known American folk songs and spirituals.

Director Walter Coppage is a familiar veteran of Kansas City stages. He has performed with the Kansas City Repertory Theatre, the Kansas City Actors Theatre, Heart of America Shakespeare Festival, The Coterie Theatre, and the Unicorn Theatre among others. Nedra Dixon stars as Pearl and has appeared as a director and performer on Broadway, Off-Broadway, National Tours, and Kansas City Theatres. Vanessa Severo stars as Susannah Mullally and has appeared with the Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Musical Theatre Heritage, The Unicorn Theatre, and the New Theatre among others.

Black Pearl Sings!, a Spinning Tree Theatre production, plays at the Just Off Broadway Theatre, 3051 Penn Valley Dr. from March 6 through March 22. Purchase tickets by calling Spinning Tree Theatre at 816-569-5277 or visit the Spinning Tree Theatre website. Photo courtesy of Spinning Tree Theatre.