Short reviews: Blue Door and Black Pearl Sings!

Two stories of the African-American experience play in repertory at Celebration Arts. Both boast outstanding two-person casts: Tory Scroggins and Tarig Elsidding in Blue Door and Carla Fleming and Lynn Baker in Black Pearl Sings! In Blue Door, a successful African-American mathematician (Scroggins) facing an identity crisis confronts history in visions of generations of his ancestors (all portrayed by Elsiddig). In Black Pearl Sings!, a musicologist (Baker) discovers a potential ticket to success in a black Texas convict (Fleming) with a treasury of old plantation songs. Blue Door: 8pm Thu-Fri and 7/5, 7/6, 7/7, 7/14, 7/21, 7/26 and 7/27; 2pm 7/8, 7/15, 7/22, 7/28; Through 7/29; $15-$20; Black Pearl Sings!: 8pm Sat, and 7/12, 7/13, 7/19, 7/20 and 7/28; 2pm 7/1, 7/21 and 7/29. Through 7/29; $15-$20; Celebration Arts, 2727 B Street; (916) 455-2787; celebrationarts.net.