
DATE: Friday, July 4, 1997                  TAG: 9707040525

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: BY JENNIFER LANGSTON, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: ROANOKE ISLAND                    LENGTH:   74 lines

MANY WHO GOT THEIR STARTS HERE WILL CELEBRATE PLAY'S 60TH YEAR

In the 60-year history of ``The Lost Colony,'' hundreds of actors have passed through the outdoor drama's revolving door. Thousands of visitors have pondered the mysterious disappearance of Roanoke Island's earliest colonists.

But for decades one sight has remained constant on summer nights - Dora Lee Midgette in a blue plaid dress. In the 30 years she has greeted visitors at the outdoor drama, the Manteo native has worn out three costumes.

She mystifies sunburnt children, who wonder how she knows to ask where they have been swimming. Adults returning to the play after many years remember her warmth, introducing her to the newest members of their families.

``I've been here long enough to know that to have a good job like this is one of the nicest things that could happen to you,'' Midgette said.

Midgette, 76, will see a lot of old friends this weekend. In celebration of the play's 60th anniversary, hundreds of cast and crew members will gather for a reunion.

Aside from the festivities - a fireworks display, cocktail parties and a spiritual service - over three days, film crews also will interview former workers and actors for a documentary film about the history of ``The Lost Colony.''

The film will tell the story of the 117 colonists who built the first English settlement on Roanoke Island in 1587. It also will document the history of the play, the development of the Outer Banks as a vacation destination, and the wars, fires and floods that have threatened to derail the production.

The reunion offers the chance to hear firsthand from dozens of people who worked on the play and how it influenced both their professional and personal lives.

``This presents a perfect, and perhaps a last, opportunity to capture on film a gathering of cast and crew past and present,'' said Angie Khoury, a producer and screenwriter for the film who lives in Manteo.

She hopes to capture the experiences of people like Bill Tugwell, who sold sodas at ``The Lost Colony'' for a dime in the 1940s. He and other working kids played tag in the grass parking lot until the sky went dark.

``We were getting money to play. Or that's how we felt about it anyhow,'' he said. ``You were somebody if you were 12 years old and getting home at 11 o'clock at night.''

He worked as an usher, an Indian dancer and a scenery technician over the years. A retired probation officer who now lives in Virginia Beach, Tugwell never entertained the idea of becoming an actor. But growing up in the footlights of the play made its mark.

``I was never theatrical in any sense of the word,'' Tugwell said. ``But it was part of what I did and it made me a better person. It gave me an appreciation for what they do.''

Actors, directors and stagehands over the decades also used the outdoor drama as a training ground, later going on to careers in Broadway and Hollywood.

``It really opened up my eyes to the world - aside from the acting experience,'' said Gordon Clark, 58, who played numerous acting roles from 1960 to 1966. He now works in marketing at the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro.

``I finally decided I prefer that lifestyle as opposed to the vagabond life of the theater - fun as it was,'' he said.

But for others, working ``The Lost Colony'' is a permanent love. Midgette said she plans to work as long as they let her stand her post at the theater's left entrance.

``I love the people and the people love me,'' she said. ``If you do the job right and you carry yourself right, you can be a hostess until you die.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos

WILLIAM P. CANNON/The Virginian-Pilot

Reunion finds many ``lost'' actors

William Ivey Long, above, production designer for ``The Lost

Colony,'' paints a coat of arms that will be added to the set of the

play, which is entering its 60th year of production. At right, Randy

Spence of Greensboro places gold leafing on a chair that the actress

portraying the queen uses in the play. A reunion of past actors is

planned for this weekend.