Show Title

Dates show will play

credits

long form Show description goes here.

Trains

By Quinton Cockrell

FEBRUARY 13 – 28 AT BARTER’S SMITH THEATRE

On October 31, 1919, an angry mob in Corbin, Kentucky, drove 200 Black citizens from town on railcars. Thirteen years later, Travis Hampton and his father, Lester, now living in Knoxville, are still dealing with the memories of that night. One night, Travis’ former friend, a white man named Junior Greevy, shows up at their door with a business proposition. Can Junior be trusted? Or does his presence present an even greater threat than before? Don’t miss this world premiere, the first work to be fully developed through Barter’s Black Stories Black Voices Initiative.

Content Advisories: (IL, P) – Intense language and themes of prejudice. More information.

Trains

By Quinton Cockrell

FEBRUARY 13 – 28 AT BARTER’S SMITH THEATRE

On October 31, 1919, an angry mob in Corbin, Kentucky, drove 200 Black citizens from town on railcars. Thirteen years later, Travis Hampton and his father, Lester, now living in Knoxville, are still dealing with the memories of that night. One night, Travis’ former friend, a white man named Junior Greevy, shows up at their door with a business proposition. Can Junior be trusted? Or does his presence present an even greater threat than before? Don’t miss this world premiere, the first work to be fully developed through Barter’s Black Stories Black Voices Initiative.

Content Advisories: (IL, P) – Intense language and themes of prejudice. More information.

Salvage

Sunday, February 16th, 11am at Barter's Smith Theatre

Six months after Father’s death, Mother sends an urgent email to her adult children, summoning them home to collect their things. Brother and Sister arrive to find their childhood home in a state of collapse and strewn end to end with the stuff of their lives - dolls, clothes, books, toys -and in one growing pile, the stuff of their father, his vests and cassette tapes and Star Wars ties. Soon the truth is out in this interracial, intergenerational family: Mother is tossing in the towel and “going West” the very next day. In the hours that follow, and as boxes are packed and unpacked and packed again, Mother will fight to leave, and Brother, Sister, and Grandpa will fight to stay, and as they each fight to set the course of their lives, they will struggle with how to save themselves and each other. What will they keep? What will they toss? What will they transform into something new?

Written by: Mary Lynn Owen

Mary Lynn Owen is a playwright, actor, and teacher based in Atlanta, Georgia. Her first full-length play, KNEAD, received its world premiere at The Alliance Theatre in November 2018 and its second full production at Aurora Theatre in January 2024. KNEAD, a one-person play in which Mary Lynn also performs, is the recipient of the 2019 Gene Gabriel Moore Playwriting Award, and The Alliance Theatre’s Reiser Lab Grant for New Work. Successive plays include SALVAGE, a 2022 finalist for the O’Neill National Playwright’s Conference and featured in the 2023 Ethel Woolson Lab Festival and the 2023 Unexpected Play Festival; and LADY PARTS, selected for the 2019 Working Title Playwrights First Light Series, Theatrical Outfit’s 2020 Unexpected Play Festival, and named a 2020 semi-finalist for the O’Neill National Playwright’s Conference. Her commissions include Alabama Shakespeare Southern Writers Festival and MultiShades Atlanta, and she is the recipient of a MAP Grant through Synchronicity Theatre for the development of a play about Women and Work. In 2022, she was named the Travis Bogard Artist in Residence at The Eugene O’Neill Foundation in Danville, California, where she also received the Carey Perloff Award, given to an established theater artist who desires to transition to playwriting. Mary Lynn’s professional affiliations include The Dramatist’s Guild, Working Title Playwrights, Actor’s Equity Association, and SAG-Aftra.  She is a recently named finalist for the 2024-25 Dramatists Guild National Playwrights Fellows program.

4th Annual SHINE: Illuminating Black Stories

FEBRUARY 16TH, 7PM ON GILLIAM STAGE

SHINE: Illuminating Black Stories is an annual evening of powerful theatrical storytelling celebrating the Black experience in Appalachia, curated by Barter Theatre's Black Stories Black Voices initiative. Inspired by the local Black community and the Appalachian landscape, the event features original monologues and scenes by Black playwrights from across the nation. Performed and directed by Barter's artists, these works provide a platform for voices that are often unheard.

Now in its 4th year, SHINE continues to offer a FREE, unforgettable experience that immerses audiences in the diverse stories, histories, and voices of the Black community in our region. This year's theme is Education, with stories set from Glade Spring, Virginia, to Johnson City, Tennessee, and beyond. Written by local Black playwrights from Bristol, Virginia, to New York City, these pieces reflect the rich cultural tapestry of Appalachian Black stories that shape our shared history, future and education.

Join us in celebrating these powerful voices and their unique perspectives!

Jerry L. Jones

A native of Glade Spring, Jerry L. Jones grew up in southwestern Virginia during the era of segregation. For grades one through seven, he attended the Rosenwald-built Black elementary school in his home town and was bused to the all-Black Douglass High School in Bristol, Virginia, where he graduated as valedictorian in 1965. His bachelor’s and master’s degrees are from the historically-Black Virginia State University and his doctorate is from Virginia Tech.

Beginning as a high school business instructor in Baltimore, Jones’s teaching career continued for twenty-seven years as a professor of computer information systems at Reynolds Community College in Richmond followed by twenty years at Emory & Henry College.

His first book, Structured Programming Logic, was a computer programming logic textbook which ended up being used at various colleges in Virginia and other schools during the 1980s. His second book, a memoir, was Go and Come Again: Segregation, Tolerance, and Reflection; and his third book, another memoir, was They Included Me: A Five-Decade Teaching Career.

Gifted with the ability to pay the piano without any music training, Jones has been a musician for more than 60 years. He has played piano at numerous area churches, events on the campus of Emory & Henry, and Abingdon’s Highlands Festival.

For several years, Jerry Jones’s mother, Mary Waugh Jones, worked in the Glade Spring home of Robert Porterfield, founder of the Barter Theatre.

Tommy Bryant

Associate Professor of English with Virginia Highlands Community College. Ph.D. candidate with Old Dominion University (pursuing doctorate in English with a rhetoric/composition focus).

Appeared on NPR program With Good Reason to discuss the history of African Americans in comics: https://www.withgoodreasonradio.org/episode/drawing-history/

Camille Simone Thomas

Camille Simone Thomas is a 5th generation Detroiter through her father’s side and a first generation Jamaican through her mothers. It’s important for her to name this because her work most often interrogates cultural legacies, familial healing, spirituality + ancestral wisdom, and the general kicking and screaming of how Black folks get free despite the oppressive forces of colonialism, capitalism, and white supremacy. She’s a multi-hyphenate playwright-producer-performer-educator. Her plays have been workshopped and performed at The Connelly Theatre, MCC, New York Theatre Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, Sanguine Theatre Company, Blackboard Playwriting series, Lime Arts Theatre company, American Slavery Project, The Obie Award-winning Harlem9 and Detroit Public Theatre Company, Dixon Place, Workshop Theatre, Barter Theatre Company, The National Women's Theatre Festival, The Brick, and more! She was a 2023 Broadway Advocacy Coalition Artivism fellow. A 2024 finalist for the Eugene O’neill NPC for her play At God’s Back. A 2023 New Harmony Project finalist, 2023 Hedgebrook Writers retreat finalist, 2023 Catskills Creative Residency finalist. She's currently in the 2024/2025 Civilians R&D Group, 2024/25 Artistic Research Fellow at The Folger in DC, and the 2024/25 JACKLabs Artist.

Cris Eli Blak

Cris Eli Blak is an emerging, proud Black playwright whose work has been performed around the world. He is a staff writer on the hit series Power Book III: Raising Kanan. He is the inaugural winner of the Black Broadway Men Playwriting Initiative, the 2024 Charles M. Getchell New Play Award, and the Atlanta Shakespeare Company’s inaugural winner of the Muse of Fire BIPOC Playwriting Festival. He is currently an artist-in-residence with Abingdon Theatre Company, Ojai Playwrights Conference, and Liberation Theatre Company, and a 2024-2027 Core Writer with The Playwrights Center. He was previously an artist-in-residence with Fosters Theatrical Artists Residency, Paterson Performing Arts Development Council, and Quick Silver Theatre. He was the recipient of the Emerging Playwrights Fellowship with The Scoundrel & Scamp Theatre Company and an inaugural fellow with the Black Theatre Coalition. His work has been published by Smith & Kraus, Inc., Ghost Light Publications, 1319 Press, Flowersong Press, YOUTHPlays, Applause Books, The PlayGround Experiment, New World Theatre, Breath of Fire Latina Theater Ensemble, and in the Black Theatre Review.

Tracie E. Morrison

Tracie Evette Morrison resides in Newark, New Jersey. She earned her BA in English from Rutgers University, Douglass College, and her MA in Counseling from Montclair State University. In November 2021, Tracie released her new book, PRAY-ER Talk, Listen Obey: Starting and Strengthening Conversations with God. Her 10-Minute play Bare Chicken was selected for the Honor Roll invisibility Project for production at Polaris North, NYC in November 2024. Preach, Preacher, Tracie’s newest full-length play, premiered in Newark Arts Festival 2024 in October. Her 10-Minute play Water Bar was presented by Chatham Players in the Jersey Voices 2023 Festival and in Rebound Production's 2024 Emerging Artist Showcase in London, UK. Tracie is excited to share her writing with others and hopes to inspire, encourage and empower diverse audiences with her writing!

Kamiah Vickers

From a young age, Kamiah felt a profound calling to share stories, whether it be in the form of performing or writing. Her plays draw from the truth of her personal experiences, weaving them into imaginative works that use the framework of theater to explore honest, human realities. Her time at New York University solidified the importance of her voice, culminating in numerous acting and writing projects. Kamiah’s play In Conversation of Love was later produced as a part of New York Theater Festival’s 2023 season, beginning her journey as an emerging playwright. This past year, she has actively contributed to numerous theater projects, including MCC Ambies, The National 24-Hour Play Cohort, and The Archive Play Festival. She currently works at The Dramatists Guild Foundation and St. Ann’s Warehouse.

She hopes to continue to be able to tell a range of stories that are meaningful, and push theater forward. She wants her words to live on, and has hopes of continuing to advocate and create opportunities for young writers. She is grateful for The Barter Theater and this exciting opportunity.

Kyra Davis

Kyra Davis is a southern artist who traded in southern hospitality to take on the city that never sleeps to further her career in acting, writing, and creating. She was a part of the Inaugural class in the Uptown Collective’s Renaissance Playwright Residency and currently a producing fellow at The Tank in NYC. Her play, SugarHill, has been workshopped at The Flea Theater and further developed with Dramatic Question Theatre. Check out her web series Front of House Faux Pas that she wrote, produced, and starred in on Instagram and Youtube.

Her passion is to create art for underrepresented voices and advancing their opportunities in the industry. Her inspirations are the Black women who came before her and the young Black women who will come after her. She desires to create works that empower and encourage them to live their lives unapologetically. Selected credits include: Law and Order: Organized Crime, Jitney (Rena), Intimate Apparel (Esther), and The Christians (Elizabeth).

SHINE: Illuminating Black Stories is sponsored by Joe & Donna Levine. This event is curated by Barter's Black Stories Black Voices program, which is made possible in part thanks to funding from The Jessie Ball duPont Fund.

Trains

By Quinton Cockrell

FEBRUARY 13 – 28 AT BARTER’S SMITH THEATRE

On October 31, 1919, an angry mob in Corbin, Kentucky, drove 200 Black citizens from town on railcars. Thirteen years later, Travis Hampton and his father, Lester, now living in Knoxville, are still dealing with the memories of that night. One night, Travis’ former friend, a white man named Junior Greevy, shows up at their door with a business proposition. Can Junior be trusted? Or does his presence present an even greater threat than before? Don’t miss this world premiere, the first work to be fully developed through Barter’s Black Stories Black Voices Initiative.

Content Advisories: (IL, P) – Intense language and themes of prejudice. More information.

Trains

By Quinton Cockrell

FEBRUARY 13 – 28 AT BARTER’S SMITH THEATRE

On October 31, 1919, an angry mob in Corbin, Kentucky, drove 200 Black citizens from town on railcars. Thirteen years later, Travis Hampton and his father, Lester, now living in Knoxville, are still dealing with the memories of that night. One night, Travis’ former friend, a white man named Junior Greevy, shows up at their door with a business proposition. Can Junior be trusted? Or does his presence present an even greater threat than before? Don’t miss this world premiere, the first work to be fully developed through Barter’s Black Stories Black Voices Initiative.

Content Advisories: (IL, P) – Intense language and themes of prejudice. More information.

Trains

By Quinton Cockrell

FEBRUARY 13 – 28 AT BARTER’S SMITH THEATRE

On October 31, 1919, an angry mob in Corbin, Kentucky, drove 200 Black citizens from town on railcars. Thirteen years later, Travis Hampton and his father, Lester, now living in Knoxville, are still dealing with the memories of that night. One night, Travis’ former friend, a white man named Junior Greevy, shows up at their door with a business proposition. Can Junior be trusted? Or does his presence present an even greater threat than before? Don’t miss this world premiere, the first work to be fully developed through Barter’s Black Stories Black Voices Initiative.

Content Advisories: (IL, P) – Intense language and themes of prejudice. More information.

Show Title

Dates show will play

credits

long form Show description goes here.

Show Title

Dates show will play

credits

long form Show description goes here.

Show Title

Dates show will play

credits

long form Show description goes here.

Show Title

Dates show will play

credits

long form Show description goes here.

Trains

By Quinton Cockrell

FEBRUARY 13 – 28 AT BARTER’S SMITH THEATRE

On October 31, 1919, an angry mob in Corbin, Kentucky, drove 200 Black citizens from town on railcars. Thirteen years later, Travis Hampton and his father, Lester, now living in Knoxville, are still dealing with the memories of that night. One night, Travis’ former friend, a white man named Junior Greevy, shows up at their door with a business proposition. Can Junior be trusted? Or does his presence present an even greater threat than before? Don’t miss this world premiere, the first work to be fully developed through Barter’s Black Stories Black Voices Initiative.

Content Advisories: (IL, P) – Intense language and themes of prejudice. More information.

Show Title

Dates show will play

credits

long form Show description goes here.

Show Title

Dates show will play

credits

long form Show description goes here.

Trains

By Quinton Cockrell

FEBRUARY 13 – 28 AT BARTER’S SMITH THEATRE

On October 31, 1919, an angry mob in Corbin, Kentucky, drove 200 Black citizens from town on railcars. Thirteen years later, Travis Hampton and his father, Lester, now living in Knoxville, are still dealing with the memories of that night. One night, Travis’ former friend, a white man named Junior Greevy, shows up at their door with a business proposition. Can Junior be trusted? Or does his presence present an even greater threat than before? Don’t miss this world premiere, the first work to be fully developed through Barter’s Black Stories Black Voices Initiative.

Content Advisories: (IL, P) – Intense language and themes of prejudice. More information.

Show Title

Dates show will play

credits

long form Show description goes here.

Trains

By Quinton Cockrell

FEBRUARY 13 – 28 AT BARTER’S SMITH THEATRE

On October 31, 1919, an angry mob in Corbin, Kentucky, drove 200 Black citizens from town on railcars. Thirteen years later, Travis Hampton and his father, Lester, now living in Knoxville, are still dealing with the memories of that night. One night, Travis’ former friend, a white man named Junior Greevy, shows up at their door with a business proposition. Can Junior be trusted? Or does his presence present an even greater threat than before? Don’t miss this world premiere, the first work to be fully developed through Barter’s Black Stories Black Voices Initiative.

Content Advisories: (IL, P) – Intense language and themes of prejudice. More information.