When “String of Pearls” opens May 1 at Big Couch, the story of how a necklace connects the lives of many women across generational lines will be an achievement for the director.
Lalanya Gunn has been wanting this for a very long time. When she was a shy middle schooler, her family relocated to New York.
“I had no friends, but a lovely girl encouraged me to audition for a musical — the moment I was onstage, I knew I had to do this. It was the only thing that made sense.
“You just feel it in your bones sometimes. You feel joy, where you can be anything you want to be, living in a whole new world,” she said of the stage.
She arrived in New Orleans during the pandemic and found slim pickings for a spirit in need of sustenance.
“One thing I noticed was a lack of female-presenting playwrights and actors,” Gunn said. “Most of the theater companies here have male directors and therefore become male-driven. So I recognized what we are lacking, and not that I can fix it, but I can bring my voice to the table and hopefully other people will want to listen to it.”
Thus, her company, Pallas Players, was born. With its mission to empower the voice of the feminine spirit, Gunn began to target its first production.
The choice would be female-driven.
She’d played a part in a Portland production that proved too tempting to resist, so Michele Lowe’s “Pearls” was selected.
Lowe wrote the piece as a four-hander, though Gunn’s actors, Danielle Morvant, Marcea Pierson, Mona Nasrawi and Gabrielle Breona will juggle more than 27 roles.
Lowe’s script is permeated with monologues so Gunn has taken other characters from exposition and brought them to life, onstage.
“I did it to create more dynamic within the script. It’s such a poignant play and I like to help people create character — helping these actors differentiate between all of those different characters makes ‘A String of Pearls’ the perfect vehicle for amazing actors,” Gunn said.
Tickets start at $20. The show runs at 7:30 p.m. May 1-3 and 2 p.m. May 4 at 1045 Desire St. Visit bigcouchnola.com.