STAGE PLAY

Abomination on Bolt Mountain

After the disastrous explosion at Piney Fork Coal Company in the fall of 2008, a miner, Billy Ray, finds himself crippled and unable to provide for his family. Riddled with guilt and convinced he was responsible for the accident, which took the lives of many men, Billy turns to liquor and pain pills. As his health and home life deteriorate, things turn even darker when Billy stumbles across a mysterious being in the forest in the dead of night.

Abomination on Bolt Mountain was my first produced theatrical play, and one I’m still very proud of (mainly because contemporary stories focused on the struggles of Southern West Virginians are essentially nonexistent). This Appalachian Gothic was originally conceived as a short story before being adapted for the theatre and headlining The Greenhouse Theatre in San Francisco in 2016, then receiving a run at The Raleigh Playhouse & Theatre in my hometown of Beckley, West Virginia.

words: JC Lacek

director (Raleigh Theatre): George Bickey

production company: WV Collective

actors: Jamie Lee Smith, Sarah Dodson, Chris Cohenour, Colby Smith, Reanna Taylor, Brian Stover, and George Bickey

PRESS

Upcoming play to reflect struggles of life in modern coal country

By Sarah Plummer, Register-Herald Reporter