GREATER U STREET THEATRE GROUP

According to jazz writer W.A. Brower (Washington Post, Jazz Times, Downbeat) “String of Pearls uses beautifully drawn characters, to speak compelling truths of the African American experience, a gorgeous score and choreography that will have you dancing in your seat.”

In an era where people in American cities all live--the intersection between the Great Migration and era of so-called Gentrification--String of Pearls brings to life those words that are right on the tip of our tongue today but never seem to quite get said about racism, class and fairness. String of Pearls tells the story of Nettie and Sam who we meet as sharecroppers on the Chikora Wood cotton plantation in 1918 South Carolina.Despite this brutal existence, Sam and Nettie possess a profound abiding love for one another and are determined that—unlike every person of African descent there--they will not die on Chickoree Wood. In the still of the night, they hatch a dazzling escape leaving their crooked debts to their ruthless nemesis Cap’m Craig who owns Chikora Wood Plantation. They land in Washington’s in Union Station on a bright glorious Tuesday morning and to their country eyes, Union Station --to their country eyes--is like another planet…people dressed in Sunday finery in the middle of the day…an occasional colored man in fine clothes confidently instructing red caps on the handling of his expensive luggage. Marble columns taller that live oak trees back home. Indeed they—for a moment are—high on the illusion of freedom and opportunity. It becomes crystal clear n fairly short order--that that fair city of white marble Is—for them--just a grayer, colder version of what you had in South Carolina. While they try to play by the rules, they eventually mixed up with some of DC’s most infamous racketeers—Odessa Madre and Daniel “Green Hat” Cassiday but soon realize that they are just not made for that life. Back to scraping to survive, Nettie and Sam’s love survives---through the dire poverty of Great Depression, the distance and danger of WWII, and the tumultuous 60s, they live and love and try find meaning and purpose of life on the Greater U Street neighborhood of Washington DC…the String of Pearls.