The Lost Colony

America’s oldest myster y gets a new look, a new life and a new vision

By ga ry P e a rce • P hotogr a Phs By Joshua ste a Dm an

Adrive that takes 30 minutes to an hour f rom the Outer Banks takes you back 434 years.

Back to America’s beginnings. Back to the earliest English settlers. Back to America’s oldest myster y: T he L ost Colony.

You star t the drive on Nor th Carolina’s Outer Banks. You leave behind the beaches, the bars, the shops, the restaurants, the crowds and the traf fic.

Cross over the causeway to Roanoke Island. Pass through the town of Manteo. Turn of f the main road into the dark woods along the sound. Park and walk through the trees. It’s evening, nearly sunset. In the quiet, you hear only the wind and the water.

You’re standing where, in 1587, a band of English colonists abandoned a tenuous settlement they’d established less than a year before. T hey set of f in search of a new home. And they disappeared.

You sit in an open-air theater where, on summer nights since 1937, the colonists’ stor y — and the myster y of their fate — have been brought to life by The L ost Colony, America’s oldest outdoor symphonic drama.

L ast summer, COV ID cancelled the production for the first time since World War II.

T his summer, The L ost Colony is back — with new energ y, new casting, new production techniques, a new script and musical score, and a new look at what might have happened when t wo cultures, English and Native American, came into contact and conflict.

T his will be the 84th summer the drama is performed in Waterside T heatre, at the nor thern edge of Roanoke Island in Dare Count y. T he theater is par t of the For t R aleigh National Historic Site, which preser ves the location of Roanoke Colony. T he colony was the first English settlement in the New World and the bir thplace of Virginia Dare, the first English child born in America.

T he play itself is a historic dramatization. It began as a federally f unded Depression-era project. T he theater was built by the Civilian Conser vation Corps.

The L ost Colony was intended to be a one-year production. T hen President Frank lin D. Roosevelt attended the show with a good deal of media fanfare on Aug ust 18, 1937 — the 350th anniversar y of Virginia Dare’s bir th and a little more than a month af ter the July 4th premiere.

Af ter FDR’s visit, the crowds came. T he show was so popular that organizers decided to stage it ever y summer. T hey’ve been doing it for 83 years. World War II forced a four-year cancellation.

L ast season’s cancellation in the pandemic was a financial blow to the Roanoke Island Historical Association, which produces the drama. T he year-round staf f had to be greatly reduced.

But Kevin Bradley, the association’s board chair, says, “T he year of f turned out to be a blessing. We had the time to reimagine the production, recharge our batteries and ref resh how we tell this stor y.”

A new director/choreographer was recr uited: Jef f W hiting, whose Broadway credits include Bullets Over Broadway (6 Tony Nominations), Big Fish, The Scottsboro Boys (12 Tony Nominations), Hair (Tony winner for Best Revival) and Wicked 5th Anniversary.

T he New York Times called W hiting a “director with a joyous touch.”

W hiting says his goal is “to honor the histor y of what occurred here on Roanoke Island, and to honor the legacy of this impor tant theatrical work. As the wind rolls of f Roanoke Sound, it whispers the tale. It’s my job as director to listen to that breeze and bring to life what happened here so many years ago.”

W hiting has reduced the lengthy original script, written by Nor th Carolina play wright Paul Green, allowing the scenes and stor y to move faster and providing more time for theatrical stor ytelling.

Additional theatrical devices will suppor t the stor ytelling, including large-scale puppets, a militar y-st yle dr um corps and a new sym-

phonic score. T he show will also feature traditional dances f rom both Native American and English historical cultures.

But Paul Green’s imprint remains.

G reen was a Har net t C ount y far m boy who bec ame a professor at t he Universit y of Nor t h Carolina at Chapel Hi ll and a P u lit zer Pr i ze -w inning play w r ight. G reen was t he fat her of “sy mphonic dr ama.” He saw it as t he people’s t heater, a way of telling A mer ic ans about t heir past.

Green had a deep concern about race relations. His vision of The L ost Colony reflects what can happen when dif ferent cultures and races come together.

In the past, the production didn’t always use Indigenous actors to por tray the Native American roles in the play. Seek ing authenticit y, the association reached out to Chairman Har vey Godwin Jr. of the Lumbee Tribe of Nor th Carolina. He now ser ves on the board of directors.

With the tribe’s help, Native Americans were recr uited as actors and dancers. Auditions were held in Robeson Count y, in the Lumbee tribal territor y.

“We are appreciative of the Histor ical A ssociation’s desire for accurate and histor ical representation,” Godwin says. “With Nor th Carolina’s A mer ican Indian population number ing more than 10 0,0 0 0, it enr iches the production to see and hear their voices on stage.”

K aya Littletur tle, the Lumbee Tribe Cultural Enrichment Coordinator agrees, adding that the new choreography, regalia, lang uage accuracy and orchestration help to inser t “more of an authentic and cultural American Indian perspective into the play.”

But the real test is whether the new production will bring back audiences, says John Ancona, general manager: “We want to give our audience an exceptional evening’s experience in an outdoor setting — an experience you can’t get many places. We want to inspire interest in a par t of histor y that remains a myster y today.”

Ancona hopes that visitors will leave the theater intrig ued by the stor y. Perhaps they’ll dip into the ongoing, unending research and archeological exploration that still seek clues about T he L ost Colony.

W here did they go? W hat happened to them? Did they drown at sea? Were they k illed by natives, or by Spanish raiders? Or did they quietly go live with a f riendly tribe?

We don’t k now. But we do k now t he colonists dreamed of f ree dom. T hey dared a dangerous ocean voyage. T hey sought a new life in a new land.

Take the drive back to their world. Walk where they walked. See and feel what they saw and felt.

Hear their stor y. Listen to the wind, the water and the trees. Feel the myster y of The L ost Colony.

T he L ost Colony’s 2021 season launched May 28 and continues through August 21. For tickets and more information: thelostcolony.org OH

Gary Pearce is a member of the board of directors of the Roanoke Island Historical Association. He and his wife, Gwyn, divide their time between Raleigh and Nags Head.