Kathy Danzer and Alice M. Gatling to Star in Florida Studio Theatre’s Black Pearl Sings!

Casting has been announced for Florida Studio Theatre’s production of Frank Higgins’ Black Pearl Sings!, to run April 8-May 30.

In the play, a search for undiscovered folk music leads Susannah (Kathy Danzer), an ambitious “song collector,” to an African-American prisoner. Pearl (Alice M. Gatling) holds a treasure-trove of unrecorded slave-era music, but can she hand over her ancestors’ songs without giving up something of herself?

The design team will include Roman Tatarowicz (set), Michael Foster (lighting) and Marcella Beckwith (costumes). The production will feature a number of classic American folk tunes.

Danzer has starred on Broadway as Meg in Crimes of the Heart, with additional stage credits including the national tour of Biloxi Blues, The Last Night of Ballyhoo, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and A Shayna Maidel. Gatling originated her role in the play’s world premiere at Stages Repertory Theatre, with other credits including Doubt, To Kill a Mockingbird, Caroline, or Change, and The Piano Lesson.

For more information, visit www.floridastudiotheatre.org.