‘Lost Colony’ production will no longer hire white actors in ‘redface’ for Native American roles

MANTEO, N.C. — An Outer Banks theatrical production — the longest-running outdoor drama in the country — is cleaning up its act.

Thanks to pressure from a college student, the Lost Colony outdoor drama on Roanoke Island will no longer feature white actors wearing “redface” makeup to resemble Native Americans. Instead, the production will hire Native Americans to perform those roles.

“When people come to the show they’re going to see the Lost Colony presented in a different way,” said Kevin Bradley, chairman of the board of directors for the Roanoke Island Historical Association which produces the play. “Let’s do the real stuff here.”

The change is part of an effort to make the Outer Banks production authentic and respectful of native culture. Drums, music and dances also will be more accurate.

The association recruited to its board Harvey Godwin, chairman of the Lumbee Indian Tribe in Lumberton, North Carolina. It also hired Jerad Todacheenie of the Navaho and Tlingit Alaskan tribes as associate choreographer.

In all, 20 parts portraying indigenous people will now be played by Native Americans.

“This is phenomenal,” Godwin said. “For an organization like The Lost Colony to hear criticism and act on that criticism says a lot.”

Organizers were spurred to make changes last year when East Carolina University student Adam Griffin posted a petition on Change.org to end the production, Bradley said.

Hiring white dancers and covering them in bronze-colored makeup was wrong, Griffin wrote.

“Sign and let them know that they must stop pushing a false narrative, with white people portraying Native Americans in redface,” he wrote. “Tell them to stop putting on this play.”

Nearly 700 signed, and as it spread on social medial, Bradley received phone calls asking for a change.

Bradley reached out to Griffin to see what could be done better.

“We learned we had some blind spots,” Bradley said. “This has really been a healthy process.”

Griffin posted later he was happy with the changes and called it a “victory.”

Three new, authentic dances have been added to the play: the warrior dance, the friendship dance and the hoop dance. They tell stories through the movements, said Jeff Whiting, director and choreographer.

Lumbee musician and linguist Kaya Littleturtle helped translate the songs into the tribe’s language. Thanks to Littleturtle, native actors will speak their lines in Algonquin, the language used by the people living in Eastern North Carolina in the 1500s.

“If Native Americans attended the show, it would ring true to them,” Whiting said.

Costumes were patterned after John White’s drawings in the 1580s and will remain the same.

The Roanoke Island Historical Association also plans to help young people with the Lumbee Tribe get more involved with arts and acting, Bradley said. They would be taught acting techniques and encouraged to take part in the play.

About 40,000 people attend the show annually, Bradley said. The play will still follow the script written by Paul Green in the 1930s that dramatizes with music, dance and colorful costumes the story of the 117 colonists sent by Walter Raleigh from England to Roanoke Island in 1587.

“The emphasis is still on the story of that colony,” Bradley said.

In the early weeks, Virginia Dare became the first English baby born in the New World. The group’s leader and Virginia Dare’s grandfather, John White, left for England to get supplies but could not return for three years.

Today's Top Stories

Daily

Start your morning in-the-know with the day's top stories.

When he did, his family and the colonists were gone. He determined they had gone to the area now known as Hatteras Island where the friendly Croatoan tribe lived.

First presented in 1937, the play marked the 350th anniversary of White’s colony arriving on Roanoke Island. Locals built the large outdoor theater near Manteo, not far from where the colonists landed.

The play was intended to last just the one season, according to an online history by the Roanoke Island Historical Association.

It opened to a packed house in spite of the Great Depression. In August, President Franklin Roosevelt attended, drawing national attention and prompting organizers to keep producing the play, according to the history.

The play was cancelled last year during the pandemic. Performances will start May 28.

For tickets and more information, go to www.thelostcolony.org or call 252-473-2127.

Jeff Hampton, 757-446-2090, jeff.hampton@pilotonline.com