2007 HS OAP
The Kentucky Cycle: "Fire in the Hole"
written by
Robert Schenkkan, an American playwright
who won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for this work.
1920.
Its coal tipple standing where once there were trees, the Blue
Star Mining Company owns the valley. If coal is king, the people
of the town are peasants, working like slaves in dangerous mines,
paid in script, indebted to the Blue Star for life. Mary Ann
Rowen, married to Tommy Jackson, has buried 4 sons and does not
want to see her only remaining boy go into the mines. A stranger,
Abe Steinman, tries to organize the miners into a union, but is
betrayed by Mary Ann's husband during the strike. Abe is hanged
and the miners lose heart. Spurning her husband, Mary Ann takes
her son Joshua and leads the miners to victory