News
Email
Print
New Look: Lost Colony up and running after major losses in a fire last fall
ADVERTISEMENT
Published: June 29, 2008
RALEIGH - RALEIGH - Two days before opening night of The Lost Colony, designer William Ivey Long was still working on costumes. They were all brand new, but they had to look very, very old.
The Lost Colony tells the true story of an English settlement founded in 1587 on North Carolina's Outer Banks whose colonists mysteriously disappeared.
And so, Long was at it with cheese graters and rasps, aging the costumes that he and his staff had created. The costumes were made to replace more than 1,000 outfits destroyed in a fire last fall at the Waterside Theatre in Manteo, not far from the site of the original colony on Roanoke Island.
"This has been the greatest challenge and, for me, the greatest assignment of my entire life," Long said.
It seems implausible that work on a regional outdoor drama could top the five Tony Awards that Long has won for his costume work in Hairspray, Grey Gardens, The Producers, Crazy for You and Nine.
But Long, who donated his time and labor to The Lost Colony, has been affiliated with the show his entire life. His father was technical director for The Lost Colony, and Long was 8 when he first performed as a colonist boy.
The Lost Colony production, which has been performed at the Waterside since 1937, bills itself as the nation's longest-running symphonic outdoor drama. Producer Carl V. Curnutte said that advance ticket sales were up as high as 17 percent because of publicity about the new production, but sales have since declined. He blamed the slow economy, a wildfire that billowed smoke over Eastern North Carolina for much of June, and hot weather after the show's opening on May 30.
Curnutte credited Long's work with helping to reinvigorate the production. Long and his New York staff spent the month of May at the production's costume shop, but many others also helped recreate what was lost. The state of North Carolina and the National Park Service each donated $500,000. HBO donated fabric and other items from its John Adams miniseries; more items came from the set of a movie about a jazz musician, Buddy Bolden, which was filmed in Wilmington.
About 80 percent of the scenery is new, courtesy of a family gift.
And a new director, Robert Richmond, has changed the staging to involve more of the audience.
Richmond also combined the roles of the narrator and Sir Walter Raleigh, who now tells the story and appears in every scene.
If you go
• WHAT: The Lost Colony, an annual summer show about England's disastrous first attempt at a permanent settlement in the New World
• WHEN: 8:30 p.m. Sundays through Fridays (no shows Saturdays), through Aug. 20
• WHERE: Waterside Theatre, 1409 National Park Drive, Manteo
• COST: $16 or $20, $15 for 62 and older, $8 for 11 and under
• INFORMATION AND TICKETS: www.thelostcolony.org or 252-473-3414
Email
Print
ADVERTISEMENT
N.C. Politics
Federal Politics
See community events or add your own! Click here!
Advertisement
