THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 27, 1994 TAG: 9406270081
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARGARET TALEV, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940627 LENGTH: ROANOKE ISLAND, N.C.
On that stage, surrounded by friends and generations of family, she fell in love with acting, and later dancing. From a supporting and nurturing cast and crew, Thomas formed her sense of community. From that theater, she would carve a career that has included jobs as a choreographer and as a dancer in two ballets and the movie ``Annie.''
{REST} Yesterday, Thomas returned to the Waterside stage to co-star in a production she called ``I Do.''
She was tying the knot.
``It just seemed like the right place to get married,'' she said. ``It always meant so much to our family. From Day One, it's kind of been destiny. And when I brought my fiance here, he just loved it. He thought it was perfect. He was like, `Let's get married here.' ''
Five generations of Thomas' family have played a role - either on stage or behind the scenes - in ``The Lost Colony,'' which tells the 16th century story of the first attempted English settlement in what would become the United States. The settlers made a home near the southern tip of Roanoke Island, but disappeared mysteriously.
The bride's great-grandmother made costumes for the show when it began in 1937. Marjalene Thomas, the bride's mother, starred as Eleanor Dare, the lead, and also as Queen Elizabeth. Barbara's brother, Hunt Thomas, is the show's assistant stage manager. Hunt's 9-year-old son, Jonathon, is the fifth generation of the family to take part in the production.
The groom, Tim Hartwig, had never worked for ``The Lost Colony.'' The technical director for the Atlanta ballet met his bride on a blind date, set up by the ballet's marketing manager, who was also the bride's director on the set of ``The Music Man'' in Georgia.
Hartwig and Thomas plan to live in Atlanta, where he will continue with the ballet and she will star in ``The Will Rogers Follies'' at the Fox Theatre.
At the entrance to the Waterside stage yesterday, stacks of programs presented members of the wedding party as the cast of a play. Included in the program was a scene synopsis and a list of short cast biographies.
The Thomas-Hartwig wedding was the second on the Waterside stage, the bride said. The first, in the 1950s, was a small ceremony held after one night's performance for two members of the cast.
But Val and Dan McCarter of Southern Shores said several couples have wed on the adjacent grounds of the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, including eight cast members of ``The Lost Colony'' and actor Andy Griffith and his first wife, after whom Barbara Thomas was named.
Many of the guests at yesterday's ceremony, like the McCarters, were connected to the bride through ``The Lost Colony.''
Dan McCarter was a lighting technician and Val McCarter a singer for the production in 1955. Barbara Dare Thomas' parents were part of the cast and crew.
``The father of the bride introduced Dan and I to each other 39 years ago,'' said Val. ``We're just bonded by this show.''
For Val, the wedding was ``a fulfillment . . . a bringing together of all kinds of symbols from our past and Barbara's youth.''
``The Lost Colony was our life,'' she said.
by CNB