Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country | Founded 05-05-05

Crossnore School Presents Miracle on the Mountain July 22 to 27

Story by Andrew Stewart The cast of The Crossnore School’s outdoor drama, Miracle on the Mountain, reads through their lines in anticipation of this summer’s production. The show opens on Tuesday, July 22, and runs through Sunday, July 27.

The Crossnore School is hosting the outdoor drama Miracle on the Mountain, based on the memoir of Dr. Mary Martin Sloop, from Tuesday, July 22, to Sunday, July 27, at the Sloop Amphitheater at The Crossnore School in Crossnore. Showtime is 8:00 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday, and a Sunday matinee performance will begin at 2:00 p.m. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for children 10 and under.

In 1913, before public education was prevalent, Dr. Sloop and her husband Dr. Eustace H. Sloop founded The Crossnore School. Today, the private, nonprofit children’s home and school serves more than 250 orphaned, abandoned, abused and neglected children from around the state every year.

“A lot of people in the area have not heard of us,” said Laura Laughridge, the school’s chief advancement officer. “We want to educate a new audience about why we are here. We want to attract a local audience to learn about the rich and colorful history of the area.”

Morganton playwright Bill Wilson adapted Dr. Mary Sloop’s memoir Miracle on the Hills. Last year, in the play’s first production, the amphitheater, named after the play’s main character, hosted about 1,500 people in its seven-day run.
“It is a story of hope,” Laughridge said. “There is humor. It is not a gloom and doom show. The best way to help is to give the children an education. We have made some changes to the school, but the mission is the same after almost 100 years.

The play focuses on the Sloops’ contributions to the isolated region. The Sloops brought education, medical care, electricity and highways to the impoverished residents of Crossnore.

They also crusaded against the mountain people’s long-standing, negative traditions of moonshine production, teen marriage and truancy.
“It was moonshine in Dr. Sloop’s day, but we have the same problem with crystal methamphetamine today,” Laughridge said. “Be it an incarcerated parent, child abuse or neglect, the percentage of children that need the school has stayed about the same since the Sloops started the school.”

Cathy Stallings of the Creative Arts Shoestring Theater of Hickory will reprise the lead role of Dr. Mary Martin Sloop, one of North Carolina’s first female medical doctors. All told, about 70 percent of the cast has returned for the second production, Laughridge said.

The Neighbors, a traditional music group from Lenoir, will accompany the play. Last year, the band and the children from the school who performed in the play stole the show, said Dr. Phyllis Crain, the school’s executive director, in a press release.

All ticket and concession sales, as well as donations, will pay for productions costs and help the programs serving the students of The Crossnore School and its mission of hope and healing. For more info or to purchase tickets, call 828-733-4305.

Want To Go?
Date: Tuesday, July 22, to Sunday, July 27
Time: 8:00 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday/2:00 p.m. Sunday
Location: The Crossnore School
Cost: $10 adults/$5 children 10 and under