Symphonic outdoor drama
Encyclopedia
The symphonic outdoor drama is a kind of historical play, set outdoors on the very site depicted in account. It combines music, dance, and drama in a unique way to tell the story.
It is most like historical pageantry performed in Europe in the Middle Ages. The best known example of a religious pageant in this style is at Oberammergau
, Germany
. Many big, spectacular stage events became popular in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These pageants were not exactly plays, but they showed a series of scenes in which historical events followed one another.
The pageants leading up to the 1937 production of The Lost Colony
were influenced by the event at Oberammergau. People in eastern North Carolina were encouraged to share the history of the lost colony of Roanoke - which had been largely forgotten. The residents of Roanoke Island thought that staging a pageant themselves would share the story with the world.
Southern playwright and Lost Colony author Paul Green had a lifelong fascination with theatrical elements, such as dance, language, music, and lighting, and a desire for drama to make a difference in American social life. Under the tutelage of Frederick Koch, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Green was deeply influenced by his ideas about “folk drama” and a concern for ordinary people and their experiences.
Pulitzer Prize
winner Paul Green wrote those words about The Lost Colony in 1938, a year after its debut. By then, America's first outdoor symphonic drama was a critical and popular success, proof that "people's theatre" could work. But it wasn't always a guaranteed success.
In addition to receiving the 1927 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his Broadway play In Abraham's Bosom
— remarkable for the time in its serious depiction of the plight of African Americans in the South — Green created and spread this new dramatic form.
It is most like historical pageantry performed in Europe in the Middle Ages. The best known example of a religious pageant in this style is at Oberammergau
Oberammergau
Oberammergau is a municipality in the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, in Bavaria, Germany. The town is famous for its production of a Passion Play, its woodcarvers, and the NATO School.-Passion Play:...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. Many big, spectacular stage events became popular in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These pageants were not exactly plays, but they showed a series of scenes in which historical events followed one another.
The pageants leading up to the 1937 production of The Lost Colony
Lost Colony (play)
The Lost Colony is a historical play by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paul Green about Roanoke, the first English colony in North America. The play is based on the historical accounts of Sir Walter Raleigh's failed attempts to establish a permanent settlement in the 1580s in part of what was...
were influenced by the event at Oberammergau. People in eastern North Carolina were encouraged to share the history of the lost colony of Roanoke - which had been largely forgotten. The residents of Roanoke Island thought that staging a pageant themselves would share the story with the world.
Southern playwright and Lost Colony author Paul Green had a lifelong fascination with theatrical elements, such as dance, language, music, and lighting, and a desire for drama to make a difference in American social life. Under the tutelage of Frederick Koch, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Green was deeply influenced by his ideas about “folk drama” and a concern for ordinary people and their experiences.
- "By 'people's theatre', I mean theatre in which plays are written, acted and produced for and by the people for their enjoyment and enrichment and not for any special monetary profit."
Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
winner Paul Green wrote those words about The Lost Colony in 1938, a year after its debut. By then, America's first outdoor symphonic drama was a critical and popular success, proof that "people's theatre" could work. But it wasn't always a guaranteed success.
In addition to receiving the 1927 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his Broadway play In Abraham's Bosom
In Abraham's Bosom
In Abraham's Bosom is a play by American dramatist Paul Green. Its original Broadway run starred Charles Sidney Gilpin as an African-American farmer from North Carolina whose efforts at self-improvement are thwarted by segregation. Green received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the work in 1927....
— remarkable for the time in its serious depiction of the plight of African Americans in the South — Green created and spread this new dramatic form.