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NORTH CAROLINA L I T E R A R Y RE V I E W
are written about, but no pictures of Morrison Grove are included in the book. And while Walls includes a chapter on the Maria Louise Lander statue of Virginia Dare in the Elizabethan Gardens next to the Waterside Theatre, I know from various sources that there are The Lost Colony cast and crew traditions associated with Landers’s statue; no mention of these are included. That I want more that adds to my knowledge of The Lost Colony’s past and present culture
is a way of saying that Backstage at The Lost Colony does what it should – provide information not available elsewhere and make readers think about what else we might want to know. Offstage life and traditions are found not only in Walls’s text. Short interviews with The Lost Colony alumni from the 1950s to the present day are given in sidebars throughout Backstage at The Lost Colony, reminding readers that the show has a long history.
But the main storytelling is done through two main features of the book. Walls’s highly readable short chapters, mainly in first person, give readers glimpses backstage through his eyes as both a theater professional and an alumnus of the show. Alongside Walls’s text and just as central are pictures. Included are production stills and promotional, archival, and backstage candid photographs. Almost every page includes some photograph either
by Dwayne E. Walls, Jr.
Paul Eliot Green, Jr., (1924–2018) son of North Carolina playwright Paul Green and his wife, Elizabeth Lay Green, served as a trustee of The Paul Green Foundation since its beginnings in 1982. The Foundation helps to support human rights and the arts. Green, Jr. was passionate about music and encouraged a love of the arts in his children. He was well-loved and will be greatly missed by his family and friends. This interview was conducted in June 2017 at The Cedars of Chapel Hill, NC, his hometown.
COURTESY OF SERENA EBHARDT
MEMORIES OF THE PLAYWRIGHT’S SON: A CONVERSATION WITH PAUL ELIOT GREEN, JR.
Although Paul Green has been gone for many years, on a tip from an old family friend I find his son, Paul Jr., retired and living in Chapel Hill. He still remembers the energetic attempts by his father and the native islanders to promote simultaneously both The Lost Colony and the Outer Banks as a destination. “They were just in time,” he says about the show and the locals. “The Lost Colony brought the tourists and the tourists brought development. They were in the right ABOVE Paul Green, Jr. (middle row center) with the cast of the
2014 production of his father’s play Johnny Johnson, directed by Serena Ebhardt (front row center)
time together. They had a symbiosis.” Then he adds thoughtfully, “I think I know why it has lasted; it’s a good play. I think it’s my father’s best.” Paul is over ninety now, with feathery white hair, and clear white skin like wrinkled blank paper. He steps quickly enough with the assistance of a rolling walker, and a personal helper, Abdul, walks him to and from the places he needs to go outside of his apartment. He vaguely remembers making trips to the island in the