DATE: Sunday, August 3, 1997                TAG: 9707310190

SECTION: CAROLINA COAST          PAGE: 44   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY DAVE MCCARTER, CORRESPONDENT 

DATELINE: MANTEO                            LENGTH:  107 lines

LIVING HISTORY ACTORS KEEP EVERYTHING SHIP-SHAPE AT THE ELIZABETH II

Still searching for your perfect mate?

If so, you can find a handful of them every day across Shallowbag Bay from the waterfront in downtown Manteo.

They are hearty and strapping young men dressed in evocative costumes, bantering with an interesting accent, tending to a beautiful old lady.

They're not your standard SWMs, though. They're a little rough around the edges . . . never had a day of formal schooling . . . still insist the sun revolves around the earth . . . quick to call you a savage or a witch if you start babbling about movies, cars, indoor plumbing, gravity and other mysteries that aren't going to be played out for another couple of centuries.

All interested parties should reply in person at Roanoke Island Festival Park.

Those perfect mates are the ones manning the state ship Elizabeth II, the gracious old lady harbored downtown, where it floats on the bay like a life-size prop from a child's dream.

As part of their Living History program, the folks at the Elizabeth II State Historic Site (part of the expanding Festival Park) showcase the appreciable talents of a dozen actors who interpret just what it was like to live the sailing life more than 400 years ago.

Those were the days, of course, of Sir Walter Raleigh's Roanoke Voyages in search of the New World.

The interpreters wear period clothing, speak as British sailors did in 1585 and generally convey the attitudes you might expect of a 16th-century English explorer.

Their dialogue is heavy on Puritan morals and British bravado (the Spaniards take a pretty severe verbal beating aboard the ship), and, since the Renaissance was still in the process of prying open the Western mind, these sailors totally lack practical post-1600 knowledge.

It all makes for great fun, well worth the $4 adult admission.

And the excursion gives audiences a chance to use big words like ``anachronism.''

The ship itself is an amazing, fascinating testament to historical craftsmanship. Named after one of the seven vessels that sailed in Raleigh's second exploratory foray to the West, the Elizabeth II is a composite design of 16th-century ships: 69 feet long and 17 feet wide, with a 65-foot top mast.

Sprinkle in the wit and would-be wisdom of the four sailors who were lounging about the ship, sunning themselves on a recent, blazing-hot Sunday afternoon, and it makes for a perfect family outing.

The kids will be so entertained they'll forget they're learning a history lesson.

The 30 or so visitors who watched the 20-minute orientation video and made the short, tree-shaded walk down to the ship were cautioned by the 20th-century guide to try to be thick-skinned among the crew members. ``If they call you a witch, a heathen or a savage, please don't be offended,'' said Ryan, our skinny teenage conduit to another era. ``Remember, the crew is living in 1585. If you have any 20th-century questions, you'll need to address those to me.''

Sitting up on the forecastle to get a good look at the visitors crossing the gangway onto the ship, Bennett Culpeper (a.k.a. Will Culp, a student at UNC-Greensboro) was the first sailor encountered. He was gregarious in his greetings and absolutely amazed by the cameras that were taken out and aimed his way. ``You got yourself a cricket?'' he asks incredulously. ``Is that one of those cricket boxes? . . . The ones what make the big spark?''

The paying shipgoers have free reign to poke around the Elizabeth II and ask questions. Sailor Reese Warwick (a.k.a. Phillip Jarrett, an actor from Atlanta) sports an ominous, fear-inspiring visage as he relaxes on the quarterdeck. But his smile is a ready one when he is asked questions about the journey he and his friends have just completed. Down below are crew members David Stuckley (Jamison Driskill, a University of Texas student) and Christoper Smalkin (Catawba College student Taylor Valentine).

Stuckley is on anchor watch, sitting near a gun port that he says came in handy on the voyage. Two Spanish frigates were bombarded and ransacked by the Elizabeth II. ``But I don't know how much of the booty I'll be seein','' he says, shaking his head. Meanwhile Smalkin tells one lady that her camera must be some sort of pagan religious device (``for some sort of cricket torture, eh?'') and wonders aloud about several of the passengers' ``strange face shields'' (sunglasses). He offered me a rapier for my ink pen. ``No dippin' in ink! Ain't that a queer quill!''

After the visitors leave the ship, the four men ``get 20th-century'' at the request of the Festival Park's Ray Jones. Jones says that auditions, held mainly at UNC-Chapel Hill, draw a diverse and talented crop of potential sailors for the Living History program, and the pool of actors is augmented with other part-time crew members who also work with ``The Lost Colony'' outdoor drama.

The full-time interpreters (Culp and Valentine are two of six full-timers) are immersed in an intensive two-week training to get them up to speed in speaking and thinking like a Raleigh-era sailor. The six part-timers ``just learn it as we go,'' says Driskill.

Is it an easy job? Well, that's a matter of interpretation, so to speak. All four say they love the work and consider it great experience. ``But when you're in costume for a 10-hour day, it can get really hot,'' Culp says.

``It's not all that fun then, for sure. But it's great improvisational acting practice.''

``Each tour is different,'' says Valentine, ``and it keeps you on your toes. What we normally do is play it very literal, like misinterpreting what they're saying. The most difficult thing about it is to stop talking with the accent when you're just hanging out,'' he says with a laugh.

``There are the nitpicky ones. But for the most part the people are great,'' Culp says.

``We had a lady the other day that found a Pepsi bottle someone had hid down below, and she just wouldn't let us forget about it.''

These mates may be old school. But even they sometimes commit anachronisms. ILLUSTRATION: Staff color photo by DREW C. WILSON

Living history interpreter Jim McCabe climbs the ratlines on the

rigging of the Elizabeth II at Manteo's Roanoke Island Festival

Park.

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu