Inside the Barter Theatre, the audience grows quiet as a woman with grey hair and thin tennis shoes appears. She portrays Emma Gatewood, who was 67 when she became the first woman to solo hike the Appalachian Trail in 1955.
She was inspired by a National Geographic article, which said, incorrectly, that hiking the Appalachian Trail doesn’t take any special skills.
The actress playing Grandma Gatewood goes on to explain her reasons for taking the dangerous hike. She faced years of domestic violence by her husband and was determined to regain her sense of strength.
Two sisters, Abby and Sandy Jones, traveled from Bristol to see this show with their mom and grandmother.
“She says she has a headache from holding back tears,” said Abby Jones.”
“I do. It was very emotional,” her sister Sandy said. “It touched me. Just her determination and will to push past the things that brought her down her whole life.”
Another woman, Sandi Schwaner from Charlottesville, laughs and nods throughout much of the performance. After the show, she and her husband sit quietly, talking.
“Overcoming. Persevering. And claiming your identity. I think that’s what struck me the most,” Schwaner said.
This play is one of several this season that highlight works by and about Appalachians.
Like most businesses that rely on tourists, theatres across the region took a big hit after Hurricane Helene. It’s also inspired some to shift which shows they play and refocus on regional works about Appalachia. Abingdon, where the Barter Theatre is located, wasn’t directly impacted by flooding during Hurricane Helene, but some staff were. So were many people who come to the Barter. This theatre draws audiences from East Tennessee and Western North Carolina, where Helene brought some of the worst devastation.
There, many theatres are making changes to their 2025 season.
Flatrock Playhouse in Henderson County, North Carolina, is planning more musical performances and comedies – shows that help people feel a sense a levity and escapism, says producing artistic director, Lisa K Bryant.
“The feedback has been, ‘Thank you, we’re so glad you’re open. And we really need to come together with other people and sing songs together and laugh together,’” Bryant said.
After the floods, Flatrock Playhouse also brought back more educational programming at schools nearby, and Bryant said they plan to continue that this year.
Like most arts institutions in the region, this theatre is reckoning with how to keep their business afloat while still being sensitive and supportive of people who have lost so much.
Back at the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, after the Grandma Gatewood show, a new play is being screened. It’s part of a weekend long Appalachian playwrights festival the theatre hosts each year. A writer and teacher from West Virginia, Ned Dougherty, wrote his play “Deera’s Country Funeral” about a farmer and a tractor who helped the community rebuild after a flood.
"This pair was really instrumental in kind of helping put the community back together," Dougherty said. "So, when the tractor dies, it’s not just the farmer mourning the loss, it’s the whole community."
Daughtery said after a major disaster, there’s often a hope that people will come out of the trauma stronger and more resilient. Sometimes, particularly on social media, he said it feels as though communities are fractured and divided.
"And then you come to a theatre and you’re reminded that the community exists, and we’re here to hold each other up," Dougherty said. "And those stories are so important of people surviving, thriving in the face of what they overcame."
Dougherty said some people come to see a live show as a way to heal. Others come to help shut out the noise of a chaotic world, even if just for a bit.
