Symposium Explores Fact and Fiction of The Lost Colony
Your chance to explore what’s real and what has been colored by myth in the legend of The Lost Colony begins this weekend at the Roanoke Conundrum – Fact & Fiction international symposium, featuring five days of free events throughout the Outer Banks.
Roanoke Conundrum-Fact & Fiction has been designed as an unique gathering of scholars from around the world to the remarkable emergence of new research that is stimulating excitement and discussion on Sir Walter Ralegh’s explorations and settlements on the Carolina coast in the 1580s and particularly the story (in fact and fiction) of The Lost Colony. Attendees to this unique event will explore not only the historical facts as we know them, but how the arts interpret history in many different forms.
In addition to lectures and tours, there will also be daily performances by Lost Colony alumni, featuring various shows including Barbara Hird and Chris Chappell in Shepherd of the Ocean, and a performance of The Lost Colony radio play that was originally broadcast live on BS in 1939.
The sumposium is happening Oct. 6-10, and all events are free and open to the public.
You can view the full schedule of events below.
Saturday Oct. 6th
9:30 am, ‘La Virginea Pars’—Discovery and Impact
Brent Lane, Presenter
Roanoke Colonies researcher whose query led to the new discovery; Director, UNC Center forCompetitive Economics; First Colony Foundation Board of Directors.
LOCATION: The Coastal NC National Wildlife Refuges Gateway Visitor Center
11:00 am, ‘Dance Out The Answer’-Interpreting and Staging Dance in Shakespeare’s Plays
Nona Monahin, Presenter
Musicology with a focus on Renaissance Dance, Author, Choreographer, Dance Instructor, Mount Holyoke College & Amherst College..
LOCATION: The Coastal NC National Wildlife Refuges Gateway Visitor Center
12 noon, Guided Backstage Tour of the Waterside Theatre
Guided Walking Tour
Box lunch available for purchase. Lunches must be ordered 24 hours in advance. Lunches include sandwich, side, bottled water and cookie or brownie.
LOCATION: Tours will meet at the Waterside Theatre Box Office.
12 noon, Roanoke Colonies Illuminated—A Study Guide For Teachers
Larry Tise, Presenter
Especially for teachers and history researchers; box lunch available for purchase with reservation.
LOCATION: The Coastal NC National Wildlife Refuges Gateway Visitor Center
2:00 pm, Coastal Environment Constraints on Roanoke Island Colonization
Stanley R. Riggs, Presenter
Author, Distinguished Research Professor, Distinguished Professor of Geology, Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences, East Carolina University.
LOCATION: The Coastal NC National Wildlife Refuges Gateway Visitor Center
3:30 pm, ‘The Wooden O’- A Look at the Staging of Historical Plays
Jane McCulloch, Presenter
Playwright, Author, Artistic Director for the English Chamber Theatre, Artistic Director for Opera UK, Guest Director for numerous theatre companies in Great Britain and the United States, former Director of Paul Green’s The Lost Colony.
LOCATION: The Coastal NC National Wildlife Refuges Gateway Visitor Center
7:30 pm, ‘Bloody Mary & the Virgin Queen’
Performance- An Example of Interpreting History Through the Arts
A musical farce centered on the relationship between Queen Elizabeth I and her half-sister Queen Mary Tudor. The setting of the play is Westminster Abbey where the sister Queens actually are buried in the same tomb. The time is today—at the end of the Abbey’s last tour—when the sisters arise from their tomb and continue battling over the differences that separated them during their life times. The performance is a cross between Masterpiece Theatre and Saturday Night Live. Starring English actor Miss Barbara Hird and Charlotte actor Marsha Warren. Produced by Elizabeth R & Company.
LOCATION: The Theatre at Manteo High School
Sunday Oct. 7th
9:30 AM- Archaeology of the Carolina Algonkians & Roanoke Island
Clay Swindell, Presenter
Professional Archaeologist, having served as project director for a variety of archaeological projects focused on the Carolina Algonkians; Demonstrated expertise in the areas of coastal adaptation, ceramics analysis and public education; Currently with the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources at the Museum of the Albemarle; Research associate for the First Colony Foundation; Designer of the First Colony Foundation’s artifact exhibit now on display in the NPS Visitor Center at Fort Raleigh National Historic Site.
LOCATION: The Coastal NC National Wildlife Refuges Gateway Visitor Center
11 am, The Representation of Beads Across Cultures
Jolene Rickard, Presenter
Visual historian, artist and curator; Associate Professor, History of Art and Visual Studies, College of Arts & Sciences & Director of the American Indian Program, Cornell University.
LOCATION: The Coastal NC National Wildlife Refuges Gateway Visitor Center
12 noon- Guided Tour of Fort Raleigh
Guided Walking Tour
Box lunch available for purchase. Lunches must be ordered 24 hours in advance. Lunches include sandwich, side, bottled water and cookie or brownie.
Tours will meet at the Waterside Theatre Box Office.
2 pm- The New Deal Comes to the Outer Banks: Social, Economic and Environmental Transformations
Jim Senter, Presenter
Field of Human Ecology; Independent scholar, free-lance photographer, primary investigator of the New Deal on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, author of The Homeless Men of Cudworth Cemetery, Live Dunes and Ghost Forests: Stability and Change in the History of North Carolina’s Maritime Forest, and Dreams as Old as Roanoke: Franklin Roosevelt’s 1937 Lost Colony Speech.
LOCATION: The Coastal NC National Wildlife Refuges Gateway Visitor Center
3:30 pm-Before Paul Green: How Mabel Evans Pioneered the Roanoke Narrative in the 1920s
Larry Tise, Presenter
Author, Editor, Former Director of the North Carolina Department of Archives and History, Distinguished Wilbur & Orville Wright Professor of History, Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences, East Carolina University.
LOCATION: The Coastal NC National Wildlife Refuges Gateway Visitor Center
7:30 pm-Paul Green’s The Lost Colony as a 1940s Radio Play
Performance- An Example of Interpreting History Through the Arts
A condensed version of the 75-year-old outdoor drama actually broadcast nationwide on CBS Radio in 1939. The performance includes the music, characters, major plot threads—and sound effects of the full-length play. Performed by an ensemble. Directed by Brandon Smith. Produced by Elizabeth R & Company.
LOCATION: The Theatre at Roanoke Island Festival Park
Monday Oct. 8th
9:30 am- The Significance of Manteo & Wanchese
Michael Oberg, Presenter
Professor of History, State University of New York, Geneseo, New York; Author of numerous publications including the ground-breaking book, The Head in Edward Nugent’s Hand.
LOCATION: The Coastal NC National Wildlife Refuges Gateway Visitor Center
11 am- “Music on Which the Story Might Ride”: Music in Paul Green’s The Lost Colony
Lydia Hamessley, Presenter
Author, Professor of Music, Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program, Hamilton College, Clinton, New York.
LOCATION: The Coastal NC National Wildlife Refuges Gateway Visitor Center
12:30 pm- Shepherd of the Ocean
Performance- An Example of Interpreting History Through the Arts
The play is a whimsical comedy about the relationship between Queen Elizabeth I and Sir Walter Ralegh. Set in Westminster’s Old Palace Yard on the day of Ralegh’s execution in 1618. In the split second before the axe strikes, Ralegh thinks about Queen Elizabeth who has been dead since 1603. By her will, time stops and Ralegh is transported to the Queen’s abode in the astral plane. While there they re-experience highlights of their volatile relationship and finally grasp the depth of their feelings for each other. The trip down memory lane is not without laughter, anger and tears. Starring English actor Miss Barbara Hird and Raleigh, North Carolina actor Chris Chappell. Produced by Elizabeth R & Company.
LOCATION: The Theatre at Roanoke Island Festival Park
2 pm- Francis Drake’s Foray Through the West Indies and the Roanoke Colony
Alan Gallay, Presenter
Author, editor, Lyndon Baines Johnson Chair of American History, Texas Christian University; former director, The Center for Historical Research, The Ohio State University.
LOCATION: The Coastal NC National Wildlife Refuges Gateway Visitor Center
3:30 pm- O Brave New World: Elizabeth I, Shakespeare and the Founding of Virginia
Rosalind Miles, Presenter
English historian, critic, novelist, journalist, broadcaster, professor and internationally acclaimed award-winning author of 23 non-fiction & fiction books—including her Camelot novels based on the Celtic queens of the Arthurian saga and I, Elizabeth the story of Queen Elizabeth, recreating the life and times of the Tudor Queen. She is also a noted commentator on the British Royal Family and the history of the monarchy in the UK.
LOCATION: The Coastal NC National Wildlife Refuges Gateway Visitor Center
Tuesday Oct. 9th
9:30 am- Music as language and the importance of Thomas Harriot’s Syllabary
Karen Ordahl Kupperman, Presenter
Silver Professor of History, New York University; Field of study—the Atlantic World; prolific author of articles and books, including—Roanoke: The Abandoned Colony, The Jamestown Project, Indians and English: Facing Off in Early America, America in European Consciousness, Captain John Smith: A Select Edition of His Writings, and The Early Modern Atlantic.
LOCATION: The Coastal NC National Wildlife Refuges Gateway Visitor Center
11 am- Re-imaging White and Harriot in Contemporary Roanoke Island
Gina Caison & Lauren Adams, Presenters
A partnership between two North Carolinians—the first an Author, Assistant Professor of English, Georgia State University—the second a Visual Artist whose work has been exhibited in North Carolina, Illinois, California, Pennsylvania, New York, Missouri, the District of Columbia and elsewhere.
LOCATION: The Coastal NC National Wildlife Refuges Gateway Visitor Center
12 noon- Guided Tour of Fort Raleigh & Archaeological Dig in Progress
Guided Walking Tour
Box lunch available for purchase. Lunches must be ordered 24 hours in advance. Lunches include sandwich, side, bottled water and cookie or brownie. Click Here to order your lunch.
2 pm- Elizabeth & Her Other Colony
Robin Maxwell, Presenter
Best-selling author of numerous books including recently released JANE: The Woman Who Loved Tarzan, and her Elizabethan Series—The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn, Mademoiselle Boleyn, Wild Irish, The Queen’s Bastard, To The Tower Born, and The Virgin Elizabeth; and screenwriter for numerous Hollywood studios and networks including feature animation for Disney, and Passions—a CBS Movie of the Week starring Joanne Woodward.
LOCATION: The Coastal NC National Wildlife Refuges Gateway Visitor Center
3:30 pm- Far from the Outer Banks: recent research on Ralegh, Lane, Harriot and White in the Caribbean and Ireland
Eric Klingelhofer, Presenter
Professor of History, Department Chair, Mercer University; a senior archaeologist on the First Colony Foundation’s Board of Directors, and in the search for artifacts associated with the Roanoke Island colonies and principal personnel.
LOCATION: The Coastal NC National Wildlife Refuges Gateway Visitor Center
7:30 pm- The Music of Patsy Cline
Performance- An Example of Interpreting History Through the Arts
The concert features the music and style associated with popular country and pop singer Patsy Cline—as interpreted by a six-piece band and the exciting singer/actor Laura Martier. Produced by Elizabeth R & Company.
LOCATION: The Theatre at Roanoke Island Festival Park
Wednesday Oct. 10th
9:30 am- Croatoan: Guidepost or Misdirection?
Charles Ewen, Presenter
Professor in the Department of Anthropology, Director of the Phelps Archaeology Laboratory, East Carolina University; President-elect, Society for Historical Archaeology; author of numerous articles and five books—including Searching for the Roanoke Colonies; and co-author of soon-to-be-published Roanoke Reconsidered: What Happened to the Lost Colony.
LOCATION: The Coastal NC National Wildlife Refuges Gateway Visitor Center
11 am- Interpreting History with Symphonic Drama
Mark R. Sumner, Sr., Presenter
Actor, Director, Producer, Playwright—including five outdoor dramas, Director Emeritus of the Institute of Outdoor Drama; former member of the Roanoke Island Historical Association’s Board of Directors and former producer of Paul Green’s The Lost Colony.
LOCATION: The Coastal NC National Wildlife Refuges Gateway Visitor Center
12 noon- Guided Backstage Tour of the Waterside Theatre
Guided Walking Tour
Box lunch available for purchase. Lunches must be ordered 24 hours in advance. Lunches include sandwich, side, bottled water and cookie or brownie.
2 pm- The 1587 Colony: How They Went Missing and Where They May Have Gone
Phil Evans, Presenter
Author, former National Park Service Historian; President of the First Colony Foundation.
LOCATION: The Coastal NC National Wildlife Refuges Gateway Visitor Center
3:30 pm- Gloriana Regina—Clothes make the Monarch
Jeffrey Phipps, Presenter
A look at the fashions worn by Elizabeth I and the impact they made then and now. Professional Costume Designer off-Broadway, regional theatre, operas and film; Professor and Resident Costume Designer for the School of Theatre and Dance at East Carolina University.
LOCATION: The Coastal NC National Wildlife Refuges Gateway Visitor Center
7:00 pm- The Music of The Lost Colony
Symphonic Concert- An Example of Interpreting History Through the Arts
Produced by Dare County Schools and performedby orchestral, band and choral music students and associates. Judi Hornbeck & Becki Rea coordinators.
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