BOONE, N.C. — After Helene came through North Carolina, many communities used art as a form of therapy and a way to process the tragedy. The Pioneer Playmakers of Watauga High School did just that by writing a play focused on the storm.


What You Need To Know

  • Theater students at Watauga High School wrote a play about Hurricane Helene

  • "Surge: The Last Wave" is based on the community’s experiences during the storm

  • The students won national awards at the Southeastern Theatre Conference

The play has become a source of healing, not only for the theater group, but for the community who came to see the performance.

“This is a story that doesn't deserve to be forgotten. It deserves to be remembered and shown as it was.”“You never forget the way that you felt or what you saw. But we can’t forget what actually happened here,” student Abby Ardois said. “This is a story that doesn't deserve to be forgotten. It deserves to be remembered and shown as it was.”

At the beginning of the year, the Watauga High School Playmakers were working on a completely different play. But after Hurricane Helene, they decided to start from scratch and write about what happened to their community.

“The kids wanted to use this experience as a way to process and heal and work through the trauma and the community efforts of trying to get things built back together,” said Zach Walker, a theater arts teacher at Watauga High School. “We weren't writing it to do anything or prove anything or tell anything. It was really just a cathartic way to use art as kind of therapy.”

They wrote the play in three weeks, just in time for the first theater competition of the season.

The play focuses on three families' experiences during Helene. (Spectrum News 1/Jenna Rae Gaertner)
The play focuses on three families' experiences during Helene. (Spectrum News 1/Jenna Rae Gaertner)

“It just fell out of them,” said theater arts teacher Sarah Miller. “I've never been a part of that kind of a writing experience.”

It’s a story about three different families from their town and what their lives were like before, during and after the storm. Students used their real-life experiences to influence their writing. When they performed "Surge: The Last Wave" for their community for the first time, the response was powerful.

“When my dad saw this show, he cried,” student Eriana Fidler said. “I've never seen my dad cry before. He was trying to hide it, but you could tell that he was definitely crying, and he admitted it. And that was just, wow, really powerful to me.”

“It's rare that you perform a play where the audience comes in, you know that every single person in the audience has firsthand experience with what's going on in the show,” Walker said.

Not only did it act as a form of therapy to help them process the tragedy together, but it was an outlet for audiences who came to see it as well.

“There's not a person in western North Carolina or east Tennessee who's not affected by Helene,” Miller said. “If you weren't here for it, you know somebody who was. If something didn't happen to your house, you know 10 people for whom it did.”

The play showcases damage and loss as well as community and resilience. (Spectrum News 1/Jenna Rae Gaertner)
The play showcases damage and loss as well as community and resilience. (Spectrum News 1/Jenna Rae Gaertner)

“It's like a whole thing just to see all your friends again and family and relatives,” student William Greene said. “Seeing them, making sure they're OK, and seeing them in front of you… it's a feeling that comes over you that you can't even explain.”

Students say this play is a love letter to their community.

“I feel that we have a responsibility to share this story,” Ardois said. “Not just as a headline on an article, but as the real experiences of actual people.”

The playmakers performed "Surge" for theater competitions across the state, ultimately making it to the national level.

During last month’s Southeastern Theatre Conference in Baltimore, Watauga High School won the most awards the theater department has ever won in its history. Those include “all star acting and composition,” “best original play concept,” and “excellence in ensemble acting.”