ECHO HOLLER – A new solo play
by Ronald Keaton

A holler is, to me, a small valley between two hills or mountains, plain and simple. To many who live and thrive in such climes, a holler is a whole lot more. There is often a water source connected to it…in this story, it’s a creek. Most likely, there are small houses or huts on both sides of the road or the creek. Might even be a general store…a post office, even one particular workplace.

And you often knew everyone who lived in the holler. And you could shout out or “holler” out to them your hellos or the latest news. But it’s always a living, breathing lifeforce that one can easily access – practically and emotionally. In this story, Echo Holler is where all people shout and make themselves heard. And the Holler creates its music through its own unique ecosystem.

This is the atmosphere under which much of the generation before me grew up and lived. A large number of them came from these Appalachian treasures like Echo Holler. This memory play is about one man and his battle with being heard – at a point when the world no longer listens. And through the path to one man’s wisdom, ECHO HOLLER aspires to help define what the American writer/activist Elie Wiesel put so eloquently: “Hope is the memory of the future.”