"Holly Grove" Takes the Stage in Charleston

  Here's a press release with loads of info about CYAC's latest show:

   The Contemporary Youth Arts Company announces the premiere of the new Scarpelli-Kehde historical/musical love story, Holly Grove, to be presented during FestivAll 2013.

   It's the story of a young school teacher, trapped by the violence of the mine war on Paint Creek, W.Va. Holly Grove brings to the stage a large and talented cast and a dramatic new score to highlight this moment of courage and perseverance in West Virginia’s history.

   In April of 1912, in response to the horrendous working conditions in the mines along Paint Creek and Cabin Creek, miners along those creeks called for a general strike. Immediately forced out of their homes by the mine owners, striking miners and their families were forced off mine property and relocated to tent colonies on private land. Once such colony was located at Holly Grove, a half mile down from the company owned town of Mucklow, along Paint Creek. 

   Intending to break the miners once and for all, the owners refused negotiations for months, forcing the miners and their families to live in tents throughout the desperately cold winter of 1912-1913. The owners then imported strike breakers and an army of armed guards from the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency in Bluefield, whose job it was to violently intimidate miners and family members alike. 

   The miners retaliated with violence of their own, exchanging gunfire with the guards and attacking their barracks at Mucklow. On the night of Feb. 7, 1913, the violence reached its peak when the Kanawha County Sheriff Bonner Hill and mine operator Quinn Morton mounted two machine guns on a boxcar and ran the well-armed train up the Paint Creek spur, firing directly into the tents at Holly Grove. 

   Following retaliatory attacks by the miners from the hills above Mucklow, peace was finally achieved with the election of a new governor, Governor Henry D. Hatfield, the following March, who forced both sides to compromise. The strike on Paint Creek ended in May 1913. 

   The cast include Liz McCormick, Nik Tidquist, Michael Tighe, Matt Connelly, Jim Balow, Mariah Plante, Maddy Gourevitch and Heather Newhouse in leading roles, with a supporting cast that includes Lee Armstead, Beth Chambers, Sara Shaver, Rick Shaver, Shelbi Clark, Caitlin Moore, Kalie Knecht, Lauren Mallory, Amanda Mandirola, Devin Elliot, Riley Elliot, Dawson Eagle, Rowan Maher, Nicci Matheny, and Eleanor Paybins.

   Performances are June 27-29 at 8 p.m. at the WVSU Capitol Center Theater, 123 Summers Street in Charleston. 

   For more information, call the Theater, 304-342-6522, email us at cyac2001@juno.com, or visit CYAC on the web at www.cyac2001.com.