[MSN] MANTEO - A fire ripped through the theater that hosts "The Lost Colony" outdoor drama early this morning, destroying two buildings and hundreds of costumes and artifacts.

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Fire destroys 'Lost Colony' buildings, costumes
By Orla Swift, Staff Writer
MANTEO - A fire ripped through the theater that hosts "The Lost Colony"
outdoor drama early this morning, destroying two buildings and hundreds of
costumes and artifacts.
The amphitheater and its sets were saved. But the costume shop yards away
was destroyed, including 70 years of costumes, fabrics, sketches and other
artifacts and memorabilia.

A nearby resident saw flames at the Waterside Theatre at 12:35 a.m. and
alerted firefighters, according to the show's publicist. 

The cause of the fire has not been determined, but it appears to have
started in a maintenance shed, according to production and costume designer
William Ivey Long.

Many valuable costumes were saved by chance, Long said in a telephone
interview this morning from his home in New York. The ornate queen's costume
and jewels had just gone to Wilmington's Cameron Art Museum about a week
ago, to be part of a retrospective of Long's work.

And the courtiers' costumes are at the dry cleaners and in Raleigh, where
they will be included in the N.C. Museum of History's forthcoming exhibit,
"Mysteries of the Lost Colony and A New World: England's First View of
America from the British Museum."

Long, a former Raleigh resident and five-time Tony Award winner, said this
morning that he was less upset about losing his own designs than those that
preceded him -- particularly the Native American costumes, which provided a
70-year overview of how historians and designers viewed Native Americans. 

"The Lost Colony" is the nation's longest-running symphonic outdoor drama.
It tells the tale of English settlers who came to Manteo in 1587, decades
before their more famous counterparts at Plymouth Rock, but who mysteriously
disappeared. The production celebrated its 70th anniversary this summer. 

Long said he probably will have to work all year to create new costumes
before the outdoor drama reopens next summer. 

He had not yet estimated the value of what was lost. But he said the theater
did not have insurance on the contents of the buildings because it could not
afford the cost. 


Staff writer Orla Swift can be reached at (919) 829-4764 or
orla.swift at newsobserver.com.

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