Fire destroys vintage costumes used in ``The Lost Colony''
By STEVE HARTSOE,AP
Posted: 2007-09-11 16:13:18
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - A fire that destroyed three buildings and about 70 percent of the costumes used in "The Lost Colony," the Outer Banks show that has recounted the English arrival in The New World for seven decades, won't deter the production, officials said Tuesday.

"We will reopen," said Carl Curnutte, executive director and producer. "If there's one thing I can say about this organization is we've already pulled together through greater disasters."

The latest came shortly after 12:30 a.m. Tuesday, when a fire destroyed the buildings and between 700 and 1,000 costumes, plus garments made in the earliest years of the production. Add in shoes, hats, gloves, jewelry and other costume items, and the loss could total 60,000 items, Curnutte said.

Among them: a sword used by Andy Griffith when he was a young actor in the show.

Some costumes were spared because they were at the dry cleaners, while others - including the Queen Elizabeth I dress worn last season by actress Lynn Redgrave - were at museums, said Tony Award winner William Ivey Long, the play's production designer.

"The best news of all is the most human, is we haven't picked up the dry-cleaning," he joked.

Theater spokesman John Buford said the fire probably would have destroyed the theater had someone in Nags Head not seen the flames from across Roanoke Sound and called 911. There were no injuries, and a cause was being investigated, Curnutte said.

"The Lost Colony" has survived past disasters. The theater was rebuilt in six days after much of it was destroyed by fire in 1947. The theater also was restored after Hurricane Donna in 1960, Curnutte said.

This time, theater officials said, they already are getting offers from people to help the theater rebound. A costume replacement fund has also been established.

Around 100 people work on the production during its May-August run. About 10,000 people have been members of the production's cast and crew since the play was first staged in 1937. It was written by Paul Green, the 1927 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for drama.

The production tells the story of the unsolved disappearance of 117 men, women and children who traveled from England and settled on Roanoke Island in 1587. The colonists were gone when their governor returned from a trip to England in 1590.

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