Photo Flash: Flat Rock Playhouse Presents SMOKE ON THE MOUNTAIN

Take a break from the frenzy of everyday life and enjoy Smoke on the Mountain, a wholesome celebration of faith, community, and Appalachian Music. Set in Mount Pleasant, North Carolina around 1938, Smoke on the Mountain brings to life a small-town musical revival featuring the traveling Sanders Family as they play the best of bluegrass, gospel, and hymns. Audiences will recognize beloved songs such as "Rock of Ages", "The Church in the Wildwood", "A Wonderful Time Up There," and more as they are performed by talented actor-musicians. Running October 4th - 19th, Smoke on the Mountain, showcases the power of music to bring us all together and will have audiences singing along.

Director, Amy Jones, describes the experience as, "an entertaining and inspirational evening full of rousing gospel music played by the cast while also getting to know the unique dynamics of the Sanders family through their witnessing. The music is beautiful and heartfelt, and the characters are fleshed out in a very real and relatable way."

Flat Rock Playhouse honors this iconic production with a dynamic and brilliant cast that can do it all: act, sing, and play a host of instruments. Without missing a beat, performers move from one instrument to another, including piano, bass, fiddle, guitar, banjo, harp, accordion, harmonica, cymbals, bells, washboards, and wooden spoons.

Supporting this highly-qualified and engaging artistic team is the one-of-a-kind Flat Rock Playhouse production team. Together, the scenic, lighting, costume, sound, and props departments present a rich and iconic small-town church that will make audiences almost hear the creak of the rafters and smell the wooden pews. Adding to this palpable design is the theater itself which began first as a tent, then a barn and today it stands as a historic as well as state-of-the-art theater, reflecting the show's folk roots yet dynamic production quality.

Smoke on the Mountain features Eric Scott Anthony (Uncle Stanley), Chris Damiano (Burl), Margaret Dudasik (Dennise), Emily Mikesell (Vera), Sam Sherwood (Dennis), Lilly Tobin (June), and Scott Treadway (Pastor Oglethorpe). Anthony was most recently seen at Flat Rock Playhouse in A Pickin' & A Grinnin' in 2018. Treadway has graced the Flat Rock Playhouse stage multiples times in the 2019 Season including Rounding Third and All Shook Up. Sherwood and Tobin became Flat Rock Playhouse regulars after appearing together in Hank Williams: Lost Highway. Damiano, Dudaski, and Mikesell will make their Flat Rock Playhouse debut.

Smoke on the Mountain is directed by Amy Jones with Eric Anthony as Music Director. Adam Goodrum will serve as Production Manager. Bill Muñoz will serve as Stage Manager with Elly Leidner as Assistant Stage Manager. Dennis C. Maulden, CJ Barnwell, Ashli Arnold Crump, and David Gerena will serve as Scenic, Lighting, Costume, and Sound Design respectively. Cassidy Bowles will design the properties.

Smoke on the Mountain is brought to you in part by Mainstage Series Sponsor Henderson County Tourism Development Authority, Co-Opening Night Sponsors Rug and Home and Fields Auto Group, Transportation Sponsor Hunter Subaru, Hearing Loop Sponsor Asheville Head, Neck, and Ear Surgeons, and Executive Producers Kanuga Conference Center and Southern Alarm & Security.

Smoke on the Mountain runs October 4th - 19th at Flat Rock Playhouse Leiman Mainstage. Performances Wednesday and Thursday at 2:00 PM and 7:30 PM, Friday at 8:00 PM, Saturday at 2:00 PM and 8:00 PM, and Sunday at 2:00 PM. Tickets for adults or children can be purchased by calling the Playhouse box office at 828-693-0731, toll-free at 866-737-8008 or online at www.flatrockplayhouse.org.

Photo Credit: Scott Treadway