76th production of Lost Colony

Ira David Wood refreshes 'The Lost Colony'

By Tim StevensSometimes, as the sun disappears below the horizon, Ira David Wood III gazes at his actors backstage. He is pleased with what he sees.

In one of his first meetings with the cast of the 76th production of “The Lost Colony,” Wood stressed to his performers–some young, some old, some veterans, more than 60 making their first appearance in America’s oldest outdoor drama–that they were walking on hallowed ground.

The remains of some of the colonists who came to the New World in the failed English colony of 1587 may be buried in the ground below the theater where the actors try to portray the colonists’ hopes, deeds, emotions and spirit for audiences 426 years later.

“It is a special place,” said Wood, who returned to the production as director this season more than 40 years after he played Old Tom, a drunken beggar in England who becomes a new man in the New World.Comment:  For more on Roanoke, see Lost Colony of Roanoke Found? and Roanoke Play Must Go On.