Tuesday, March 03, 2009

More Island Culture

Yesterday, as a powdery dusting of snow fell on Ocracoke, and the temperature started to plunge toward freezing, I was reminded of the coming evening's entertainment, Backyard Adventure, a play in one act written and directed by occasional island resident, Cynthia Mitchell. It would be a great way to spend a cold and dark winter night...much better than sitting home alone, trying to stay warm by the fire. And it was -- a great evening's entertainment, that is.

The play was produced by the Ocracoke Youth Center, and included six students (ranging in age from elementary school to high school), and one brave and talented adult. When I think of school age productions I remember so many performances where the actors just stood like statues and delivered their lines with hardly a nod to emotion. Not last night. All of the actors were animated and engaged. They knew how to project their voices, and spoke their lines with feeling and impressive stage presence.

The play was short, about thirty minutes, but the audience was drawn into the drama from the moment the first actor stepped on the stage. Many thanks to DJ, Chris, Deana, Phyllis, Eldon, Kevin, Caroline, Kitty, Cynthia, and all of the other folks who made this production a reality. It is remarkable what talent we have here on this tiny sliver of sand so far removed from the mainland.

Our latest Ocracoke Newsletter is Lou Ann's story of participating in the 2008 Christmas Bird Count on Portsmouth Island. You can read it here.

To read about Philip's new book, Digging up Uncle Evans, History, Ghost Tales, & Stories from Ocracoke Island, please click here.

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:31 AM

    Everyone did a fantastic job last night! Wonderful results of a lot of hard work and effort. Maybe the kids will do another play sometime. Thanks for coming, Philip.

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  2. Anonymous5:51 PM

    Is there a Summer Stock ocracoke island Theater ? perhaps a Grant can be secured to fund a Cultural heritage of Oral Traditions of the island. Git er Done

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  3. Ocracoke has a tradition, going back to at least the 1970s, of local theater. We've done Oklahoma, The Sound of Music, A Tale of Blackbeard (locally written by Julia Howard), Peter Pan, an original island cabaret, and about a dozen other shows. Maybe this year we'll see a revival of drama on Ocracoke. These things tend to go in cycles in small communities like Ocracoke. Resources and leadership are usually limited, and talented folks sometimes get overwhelmed. We'll see.

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  4. Anonymous6:26 PM

    It was such a fun event! :) They worked really hard & put on a great show!

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