LIVE RICH,
DIE POOR
In 1975 Alice Walker sets out on the quest to locate Zora Neale Hurston gravesite and give honor her with a tombstone. Our story asks what if Alice had accidentally awaken Zora while on this noble quest.
This is where our story begins. It is an original, fictional, one woman play on the life of Zora Neale Hurston. In Live Rich Die Poor, actress and writer Ann Perry Wallace re-imagines scenes from Zora Neale Hurston’s life; from her happy days in Eatonville, the devastating loss of her mother, hints of the lost years of wandering that she never spoke of, to arriving in New York and becoming a fixture within art world of the Harlem Renaissance, becoming an academic, and even her falling out with her best friend Langston Hughes.
This is a study of a woman who fought to live and use every single gift while she lived. Her life has the power to instruct, inspire and illuminate. This show captures the vulnerable Zora we don't often read about, and it asks us if we are living in a way in which we are emptying ourselves out and using all of our gifts.
Strap in and put yourself in Zora's shoes as she confronts her life choices and discovers the reach of her impact.




