There's Still Snow on Silver Star
There's Still Snow on Silver Star
Semifinalist, American Association of Community Theatres NewPlayFest 2026
Semifinalist, American Association of Community Theatres NewPlayFest 2026
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"This far and no further. Here I plant my feet..."
"This far and no further. Here I plant my feet..."
Emotional Historical Drama
Emotional Historical Drama
4 acts, 125 minutes
2f, 2m
Licensing:
$75 per performance
$50 script duplication license
To discuss performance rights, email to:
Fightplot@gmail.com
Set in Yacolt, Washington, in the first days of September 1902, the play follows Essie Garner, daughter of one of the first homesteaders in the area. After losing her fiancé in a tragic fire, she's come back home to care for her ailing father. But along comes Jamie Walsh, a land buyer for Weyerhaeuser company with a scheme to force the Garners to sell their well-timbered homestead to him for a pittance. Essie takes up a scheme to get Jamie to wed her and therefore keep the land in the family...but when their town and their homestead is threatened by a forest fire of epic proportions, more than simply trees will be burnt away in the blaze.
Historical Note: The Yacolt Burn forest fire began in northern Oregon and spread north over the course of three days, even leaping over the mighty Columbia River. The flames leapt to 300 feet high and the smoke was so dense steamboats on the river had to use their searchlights to navigate. The blaze traveled 30 miles in less than 36 hours and consumed over 239,000 acres of southwest Washington. (It also kickstarted the local timber industry in producing over thirteen and a half million board feet of lumber the following month, and changed Weyerhaeuser Company's business from real estate speculation into logging.)
Production History
Production History
September 12 - October 5, 2025 Love Street Playhouse Woodland, WA USA
“ Essie's anthropomorphizing of fire ("it's chasing me, it's getting in front of me and laying a trap"--I'm paraphrasing) is exactly and wrenchingly true to the experience of losing a loved one to a fire. I don't know if Mr. Bareford has had this experience -- I hope not -- or if he is just, as a playwright and author, very attuned to human emotion. But he's right about how it feels, like I will never escape it. This play provided for me that sensation of catharsis those ancient Greeks talked about. I truly hope this play gets picked up by a bigger market because more people deserve to see it. ” -- Ann Bee, theatre patron
“ I highly recommend this captivating play for its skillful integration of early 20th-century history and the Jane Austen-inspired sparring between Essie, a college educated woman committed to saving her imperiled homestead and Jaime, an ambitious man looking to buy her family’s property on the cheap. They generate plenty of emotional sparks before the flames of the Yacolt Burn descends upon them. The devastating wildfire forces each of them to abandon pretense and determine what they truly value. ” -- Michael Solomonson
Photos by Bobby Pallotta
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