‘Company K’ now a film, premieres Nov. 11 at Sunset

ASHEBORO — RhinoLeap Productions’ moving stage play “Company K: From Asheboro to the Fields of France” is now a film, and it will have its world premiere in a Veterans Day event at the Sunset Theatre, 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 11. 

A Q&A with the actors and playwright Barbara Presnell will follow the screening. The presentation is part of the Friends of the Library Sunset Signature Series, sponsored by the Heart of North Carolina Visitors Bureau, the City of Asheboro and the Friends of the Randolph County Public Libraries. It is free,

Company K, Randolph County’s unit of the State Militia (now the Na-tional Guard), was called into service and sent to fight in France during World War I. With the Randolph County soldiers in the vanguard, Allied forces attacked the German Hindenburg Line defensive position at Bellicourt on Sept. 29, 1918, breaking the enemy line and hastening the end of the war.

In the single day of battle, Company K suffered more than 60 percent casualties, with 23 young men killed. 

The play was conceived by staff at the Randolph County Public Libraries and commissioned by the City of Asheboro to memorialize the 100th anniversary of the battle in 2018.               

The  production was directed by RhinoLeap Artistic Director Jeremy Skidmore and features original music by Christen Blanton Mack and Mark Dillon. 

Presnell crafted the script using original documents and letters home from the troops, including those from her own grandfather, First Sergeant Ernest E. Bunting.

Rhinoleap first produced the show as a one-time event on Sept. 29, 2018. Since the original staging, it has been revived twice in Asheboro, and toured to Troy.

During the second revival in February 2023, RhinoLeap filmed the production onstage at the Sunset Theatre and at other Asheboro locations, including the theatre rooftop, the Historic Courthouse, the Old City Cemetery, Mill 133, Back to Earth Farm, Leo’s Whiskey Bar and on Worth Street. 

The film will be packaged with educational material about World War I for use in school classrooms. Begun in 2018, the Sunset Signature Series brings high profile speakers and performers to the Sunset Theatre to showcase the theatre and downtown Asheboro. 

The theatre is located at 234 Sunset Avenue. For more information, call 800-626-2672.