Parkway Playhouse presents Bloodletting in These Hills

BLOODLETTING IN THESE HILLS

Written by Walter Thinnes

Directed by Elizabeth DeVault

The winner of our 2024 Appalachian Playwriting Festival. More than 7,500 strikers walked out of more than 90 mines in the Paint Creek and Cabin Creek coal fields of West Virginia during the bloody 1912-1914 labor war. Bloodletting in These Hills is the story of one family caught in the crosshairs of that struggle.

We’re Parkway Playhouse, a historic theatre that’s been a part of the incredible Burnsville, NC community for 77 years!

We were originally established in 1947 by Dr. William Raymond Taylor, a professor of drama at Woman’s College of Greensboro, North Carolina (now UNCG). Parkway Playhouse once operated as a summer stock venue and a sponsored extension of the drama departments at UNCG and the University of Miami. In the 1990s the Parkway Playhouse became an independent theater company.

Today, Parkway Playhouse can still be found nestled in the gorgeous Appalachian Mountains where we still produce mainstage productions in the summer and also offer theatre education opportunities year-round. In our 2024 season, we’re proud to be producing 5 mainstage productions, hosting a handful of summer camps, teaching conservatory classes, performing Reading is Alive around WNC, AND producing our Appalachian Playwriting Festival for the second year!

Our mission is to strengthen our local community by using the performing arts to uplift and unite our neighbors and inspire new ways of looking at the world. As a teaching theater, we educate young and potential theater professionals and provide a gathering space for our community as a whole. We aim to inspire, educate, and entertain in all that we do.