The play was written during the Great Depression by Paul Green, who had earlier won the Pulitzer Prize for drama. The Lost Colony marked a shift in his work from more traditional forms of drama to focus on the creation of large-scale outdoor musical spectacles which he termed "Symphonic Dramas." As of 2012, this is the United States's second-longest-running historical outdoor drama, behind The Ramona Pageant produced in Southern California.
Before Jamestown and Plymouth were founded, a group of about 120 men, women and children established one of the first English settlements in the New World on Roanoke Island in 1587. Shortly after arriving in this New World, colonist Eleanor Dare, daughter of Governor John White of the colony, gave birth to her daughter Virginia Dare. The governor's granddaughter was believed to be the first English child born in North America.
Life on the island was difficult for the colonists. Low on supplies and facing retaliation from the Native Americans they had displaced, the colonists sent Governor White to England in the summer of 1587 for supplies. Because of the impending war with Spain, White was unable to return to Roanoke Island until 1590. When he arrived, he found no evidence of the colony, save the word "CROATOAN" carved into a palisade of the fort and a nearby tree with the letters "CRO" similarly inscribed. While some theories hold that the colonists died at the site,[5] the fate of those first colonists remains a matter of scholarly debate.
1937 production
On July 4, 1937, The Lost Colony first opened. Annual celebrations of Virginia Dare's birthday, August 18, had been celebrated by the Roanoke Colony Memorial Association since its founding in 1894. The early events were primarily picnic meetings, featuring hymn singing and commemorative speeches. In 1923, the festivities were expanded to include dramatic sketches. By 1925 local residents performed a full-scale pageant of the story, using pantomime, music, and narration.[6] W. O. Sounders, editor of the Elizabeth City Independent, was a passionate supporter of the pageant and supported expanding the celebration.
Mabel Evans Jones, Roanoke Island native and Dare County School Superintendent, wrote, produced and starred in a 1921 silent film of the historic events. The film was shown across North Carolina. It was the first silent film produced in the state.[7]
The 1926 pageant attracted the largest crowd to that point,[6] and organizers sought to build on their achievement. They began to prepare to mark the 350th anniversary of Virginia Dare's birth. They approached North Carolina playwright Paul Green about developing a new pageant script.[8]
"CRO" tree prop
Having visited the island on several occasions, Green had already considered writing a piece about "those tragic first settlers."[9] He joined with Saunders and Bradford Fearing, president of the Roanoke Historical Society, to develop a play to celebrate the 350th anniversary of Virginia Dare's birth. Initially, the team imagined a plot to tell the legend of Virginia Dare's falling in love with Chief Manteo's son and giving birth to a new race that has since vanished. To raise interest in the pageant, they planned to conduct a nationwide beauty contest to find a young woman to play Virginia Dare.[9] But Green envisioned a spectacle with a combination of music, dialogue, and dance, which he called "symphonic drama". He wanted the drama to express community ideals of freedom, struggle, and perseverance—guiding themes for a nation in the grips of the Great Depression.
The original production had difficulty finding funding; early pledges of support evaporated as the depression deepened. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) of President Franklin D. Roosevelt helped provide funding and labor for the production through its various agencies; it supported theater groups, writers and artists among the people who were put to work during the Great Depression.[10] North Carolina Congressman Lindsay Warren secured the production of 25,000 memorial half dollars to be sold to raise funds.[11]
English-born architect Albert Quentin "Skipper" Bell began construction of the large-scale set with assistance from workers of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Previously, Bell had designed a village of log-structures on the grounds of Fort Raleigh.
Through the Federal Theatre Project, WPA funds were used for salaries as part of a Theatre Works initiative to assist out-of-work Broadway actors from New York City. English-born actress Katherine Cale starred as Eleanor Dare, Virginia's mother, while Lillian Ashton portrayed Queen Elizabeth I, Earl Mayo played the comic Old Tom, and Jack Lee narrated the production as The Historian.[12] Other actors were hired to fill the major roles, with members of the Carolina Playmakers, Roanoke Islanders, and CCC taking the smaller roles.
The production was directed by Samuel Selden, one of Green's associates in the UNC Playmakers of Chapel Hill, under the supervision of Frederick H. Koch.
Music for the production was directed by Eric Stapleton, director of North Carolina's WPA Federal Music Project. It was drawn primarily from the types of old English hymns, ballads, and folk songs which the settlers likely carried with them.[13]Lamar Stringfield, American composer and conductor, has been credited with composing the original music for the play.[14] His contribution is not noted in the original program. The new Hammond electric organ was used to provide musical accompaniment. (By the late 1960s, this particular instrument had been transferred to a local Catholic church.)
President Franklin D. Roosevelt saw the production on August 18, 1937. He said, "We do not know the fate of Virginia Dare or the First Colony. We do know, however, that the story of America is largely a record of that spirit of adventure."[15]
Radio adaptation
On August 23, 1939, CBS radio broadcast a one-hour adaptation of the play from the Waterside Theatre.[16]
Longest-running symphonic outdoor drama
The drama attracted enough tourists to stimulate the economy of Roanoke Island and the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Their hotels, motels, and restaurants thrived despite the bleak depression economy. The village of Manteo renamed its streets after historic figures in the drama. Originally intended for one season, the drama was produced again the following year and has since become a North Carolina tradition. Since 1937, more than four million visitors have seen it. Of the more than 40 annual outdoor dramas which were produced through the 20th century, The Lost Colony is one of three which has continued into the 21st century. In that time, only two seasons have been canceled: the 1944 season was canceled due to WWII and the 2020 season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[17]
The drama has been a community effort, and many local Roanoke Islanders and North Carolinians have performed in it. Marjalene Thomas first performed with the show in 1938 and throughout the years played every female role — with the exception of one.[8] Robert Midgette (fight director of The Lost Colony) has been with the show 40+ years. Actor Andy Griffith, who performed at the production's Waterside Theatre on Roanoke Island from 1947 to 1953, liked Manteo so much he decided to live there permanently. North Carolina State Senator Marc Basnight was born in Manteo; he performed in the role of a colonist child in the play.
As of 2024, the play has better sound and lighting and employs Native American actors, with an updated script showing how they actually speak and behave. Some people criticized the changes for making the play "woke".[18]
Notable alumni and artistic staff
The production is often referred to as a training and proving ground for young artists, and many use their summers as a launching pad for their professional careers with success on broadway, in film, television, theme parks, and beyond.
Academy Award and Tony Award-nominee Lynn Redgrave played the supporting role of Queen Elizabeth I for seven performances during the show's 2006 season.[25]
There are current artistic team members who started or nurtured their careers with The Lost Colony. This includes Production designer William Ivey Long, winner of six Tony Awards for Best Costume Design.
Lighting designer Joshua C. Allen began his career at The Lost Colony in 1991, and has since designed hundreds of productions, venues, and notable themed environments around the world, while receiving numerous awards from the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES).
The waterside theatre on Roanoke Island where the play is performed.
Costume shop fire
On September 11, 2007 a resident of Nags Head, North Carolina reported a fire across the sound. All fire departments north of Oregon Inlet responded to find part of the Waterside Theatre in flames. The fire crews worked to control the blaze. In spite of their efforts, the maintenance shed, Costume Shop, and a small storage building were completely destroyed. No cause has been determined.
Except for a few costumes stored at the dry cleaners and others on display at the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh, the production's costumes suffered a total loss. The destroyed costumes include vintage costumes created by Irene Rains in the 1940s and 1950s; all of Fred Voelpel's costumes made in the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s, and the later costumes designed by William Ivey Long.
Recovery from the 2007 event relied on assistance from federal, state, and local sources in additions to donations from individuals and foundations. The costumes were replaced and the building was rebuilt for opening night on May 30, 2008.
John White was an English colonial governor, explorer, artist, and cartographer. White was among those who sailed with Richard Grenville in the first attempt to colonize Roanoke Island in 1585, acting as artist and mapmaker to the expedition. He would most famously briefly serve as the governor of the second attempt to found Roanoke Colony on the same island in 1587 and discover the colonists had mysteriously vanished.
Roanoke Island is an island in Dare County, bordered by the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It was named after the historical Roanoke, a Carolina Algonquian people who inhabited the area in the 16th century at the time of English colonization.
The Roanoke Colony was an attempt by Sir Walter Raleigh to found the first permanent English settlement in North America. The colony was founded in 1585, but when it was visited by a ship in 1590, the colonists had inexplicably disappeared. It has come to be known as the Lost Colony, and the fate of the 112 to 121 colonists remains unknown.
Dare County is the easternmost county in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 36,915. Its county seat is Manteo.
Manteo is a town in Dare County, North Carolina, United States, located on Roanoke Island. The population was 1,602 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Dare County.
Virginia Dare was the first English child born in an American English colony.
Unto These Hills is an outdoor historical drama during summers at the 2,800-seat Mountainside Theatre in Cherokee, North Carolina. It is the third oldest outdoor historical drama in the United States, after The Lost Colony in Manteo in eastern North Carolina and The Ramona Pageant in Southern California. The first version of the play was written by Kermit Hunter and opened on July 1, 1950, to wide acclaim.
Paul Eliot Green was an American playwright whose work includes historical dramas of life in North Carolina during the first decades of the twentieth century. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his 1927 play, In Abraham's Bosom, which was included in Burns Mantle's The Best Plays of 1926-1927.
Fort Raleigh National Historic Site preserves the location of Roanoke Colony, the first English settlement in the present-day United States. The site was preserved for its national significance in relation to the founding of the first English settlement in North America in 1587. The colony, which was promoted and backed by entrepreneurs led by Englishman Sir Walter Raleigh, failed sometime between 1587 and 1590 when supply ships failed to arrive on time. When next visited, the settlement was abandoned with no survivors found. The fate of the "Lost Colony" was a celebrated mystery, although most modern academic sources agree that the settlers likely assimilated into local indigenous tribes.
William Ivey LongII is an American costume designer for stage and screen. His most notable work includes the Broadway shows The Producers, Hairspray, Nine, Crazy for You, Grey Gardens, Young Frankenstein, Cinderella, Bullets Over Broadway and On the Twentieth Century.
The Machapunga were a small Algonquian language–speaking Native American tribe from coastal northeastern North Carolina. They were part of the Secotan people. They were a group from the Powhatan Confederacy who migrated from present-day Virginia.
Roanoke Island Festival Park is a North Carolina state historic site located at the end of NC 400 in Manteo, North Carolina on Roanoke Island. The park includes a recreated 16th-century sailing ship, living history demonstrators, a museum, and a variety of performing and visual arts. Admission includes the main attractions and is valid for two days.
Eleanor Dare of Westminster, London, England, was a member of the Roanoke Colony and the daughter of John White, the colony's governor. While little is known about her life, more is known about her than most of the sixteen other women who left England in 1587 as part of the Roanoke expedition.
Wraiths of Roanoke, is a 2007 Syfy original supernatural period horror film, directed by Matt Codd and stars Adrian Paul, Frida Farrell, Rhett Giles, Michael Teh, and George Calil.
Manteo was a Croatan Native American, and was a member of the local tribe that befriended the English explorers who landed at Roanoke Island in 1584. Though many stories claim he was a chief, it is understood that his mother was actually the principal leader of the tribe. This leadership would not have automatically passed down to her children as many English at the time may have assumed.
The outdoor drama, also known as the symphonic outdoor drama or symphonic drama, is a kind of historical play, often featuring music and dance, staged in outdoor amphitheaters in the location it depicts.
The Secotans were one of several groups of Native Americans dominant in the Carolina sound region, between 1584 and 1590, with which English colonists had varying degrees of contact. Secotan villages included the Secotan, Aquascogoc, Dasamongueponke, Pomeiock (Pamlico) and Roanoac. Other local groups included the Chowanoke, Weapemeoc, Chesapeake, Ponouike, Neusiok, and Mangoak (Tuscarora), and all resided along the banks of the Albemarle and Pamlico sounds.
Wanchese was the last known ruler of the Roanoke Native American tribe encountered by English colonists of the Roanoke Colony in the late sixteenth century. Along with Chief Manteo, he travelled to London in 1584, where the two men created a sensation in the royal court. Hosted at Durham House by the explorer and courtier Sir Walter Raleigh, he and Manteo assisted the scientist Thomas Harriot with the job of deciphering and learning the Carolina Algonquian language. Unlike Manteo, Wanchese evinced little interest in learning English, and did not befriend his hosts, remaining suspicious of English motives in the New World. In April 1586, having returned to Roanoke, he finally ended his good relations with the English, leaving Manteo as the colonists' sole Indian ally.
William Oscar "W. O." Saunders (1884–1940) was an American newspaper publisher, journalist, essayist, magazine contributor, satirist, and social critic of rural American life and culture. One of his most famous writings was "The Book of Ham."
Mabel Augusta Evans Jones was an American educator and writer. As superintendent of schools in Dare County, North Carolina, she wrote and produced the silent film The Lost Colony (1921), directed by Elizabeth B. Grimball and intended for classroom and community educational use.
References
↑ Green, Paul and Laurence G. Avery (2001). The Lost Colony: A Symphonic Drama of American History. Chapel Hill: University Press of North Carolina. ISBN978-0-8078-4970-5.
↑ Powell, William S. (1985). Paradise Preserved: A History of the Roanoke Island Historical Association. Chapel Hill: North Carolina University Press. ISBN978-0-8078-0975-4.
1 2 Downing, Sarah (2013). Hidden History of the Outer Banks. Charleston, SC: The History Press. pp.41–43. ISBN978-1-60949-914-3.
↑ Brickhouse, Anna (2015). The Unsettlement of America: Translation, Interpretation, and the Story of Don Luis de Velasco, 1560-1945. New York: Oxford University Press. p.245. ISBN9780199875597.
↑ "Radio and Education"(PDF). Broadcasting. September 1, 1939. p.70. Retrieved January 31, 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
