“The year off turned out to be a blessing. We had the time to reimagine the production, recharge our batteries, and refresh how we tell this story.” — Kevin Bradley Colony, America’s oldest outdoor symphonic drama. Last summer, the production was canceled for the first time since World War II due to the pandemic. This summer, The Lost Colony is back, with fresh energy, fresh casting, modern production techniques, an updated script, and a new musical score. Now, it offers another perspective at what might have happened when two cultures, English and Native American, came into contact and conflict. This will be the 84th summer that the drama is performed in Waterside Theatre, at the northern edge of Roanoke Island in Dare County. The theater is part of the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, which preserves the location of the Roanoke Colony. The colony was the first English settlement in the New World and 26 | WALTER
the birthplace of Virginia Dare, the first English child born in America. The play itself is a historic dramatization. It began as a federally funded Depression-era project, when the theater was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps. The Lost Colony was intended to be a one-year production. Then President Franklin D. Roosevelt attended the show with a good deal of media fanfare on August 18, 1937, the 350th anniversary of Virginia Dare’s birth and a little more than a month after the July 4th premiere. After FDR’s visit, the crowds followed. The show was so popular that organizers decided to stage it every summer. They’ve been doing it continuously for 83 years, with the exception of a four-year cancellation forced by WWII. Last season’s cancellation in the pandemic was a financial blow to the
Roanoke Island Historical Association, which produces the drama. The yearround staff had to be greatly reduced. But having the break wasn’t all bad, according to Kevin Bradley, the association’s board chair. “The year off turned out to be a blessing,” says Bradley. “We had the time to reimagine the production, recharge our batteries and refresh how we tell this story.” The association also recruited a new director/choreographer: Jeff Whiting, whose Broadway credits include Bullets Over Broadway (six Tony Nominations), Big Fish, The Scottsboro Boys (12 Tony Nominations), Hair (Tony winner for Best Revival), and Wicked 5th Anniversary. The New York Times has called Whiting a “director with a joyous touch.” “My goal is to honor the history of what occurred here on Roanoke Island, and to honor the legacy of this important theatrical work,” says Whiting. “As the wind rolls off Roanoke Sound, it whispers the tale. I feel it’s my job as director to listen to that breeze and bring to life what happened here so
