That Was Then, This Is Now: Finding New Relevance in a Long-Running Hit
Friday 8/19, 2022 at 5:00 eastern time
Community Gathering on Zoom - register with the bright red reservation box to receive the Zoom link. These gatherings are a service for the theater community and are offered free for TRU members; we ask that non-members help keep us running by making a donation or joining as a member.
In the room: Jeff Whiting, director/choreographer and Kaya Littleturtle, native music and cultural advisor for The Lost Colony, theater's longest running outdoor symphonic drama, presented annually since 1937 in Manteo North Carolina near the original location of the lost Roanoke colony. Winner of a Tony Award in 2013, the show by Pulitzer Prize winner Paul Green was re-imagined and overhauled during shutdown, in 2021, with an eye towards paying greater respect to the indigenous elements of the production, as well as updating the production for a modern audience, adding technology and theatricality with puppets and 3d projections. What prompted the change after 83 years? How successful has the new team been in finding new relevance in a familiar piece? Were there compromises made?
