The coastland times with which is combined the pilot and herald of Belhaven and Swan Quarter. [volume] (Manteo, N.C.) 1959-1973, 1961-11-10
BRlTTON
Continued from Page 0ne)

BRlTTON
Continued from Page One)
dubbed the "Goldmasquers" to
Chapel Hill in the spring of 1914
and returned home with the North
Carolina drama championship. Since
then, Britton's productions have
claimed total Of 90 first place
drama awards.
In 194S, Britton carried the Gold
masquers troupe to the New York
State Drama Festival and won the
top award by q wide margin. "And
that" said Britton, "was the high
spot in my career"
Britton was speaking Of career
that has extended far beyond the
high school stage. He became stage
manager for Paul Green's Long
running summer symphonic drama,
1.-THE Lost Colony" at Manteo in
1947. Four years later he became
assistant director and in 1868 he be-
came director, succeeding Samuel
Selden.
At Manteo, he showed himself to
be as adept at handling college stu
dents and professional actors as in
handling high school students. And
the "Lost Colony, which was once
a few performances away from a
permanent finale, played to 10000
during the past summer.
Britton won attention from New
York critics in 1856 by staging the
Lost Colony" in the Metropolitan
Opera House. He was already
known to a number of professional
Broadway actors, television and
screen personalities (among them
Andy Griffith, Julia Meade and
Bob Armstrong; who had worked
with him in the "Lost Colony.
The New York exposure brought
Britton series of job offers, which
to the delight of most Goldsboro
residents, he turned down. Colds
boro had come to expect high school
productions with Broadway scripts
and polish.
Off Stage As Well AS On.
To many Goldsboro leaders, how
ever, Britton's skill with a script
was secondary to his ability to
handling "mixed-up students" who
preferred the poolroom to the class
room.
"The play is the thing, they say"
Goldsboro News-Argus Editor Hen.
ry Belk once wrote. "But the play
lis not enough for Clifton Britton.
Teenagers brought into contact
with his understanding, his personal
interest in them, his sympathy, find
ia man with whom they can talk, a
man they trust, one to whom they
can go with their ambitions, their
problems, their worries From
his own depths of soul, he reaches
youth with the truth that they are
free souls, entitled to hold their
heads up and joyously meet life."
"Britton directs successful plays,
|skits, allegories, dramas" Belk said.
"But most of all he gives courage,
confidence, composure and freedom
to generation after generation of
Goldsboro's youth"
Many agree with Belk's appraisal
of the man Goldsboro's students
know as "Mr. B." In 1949, Britton
received the East Carolina Alumni
Associations annual alumni award.
He was named Goldsboro's out
standing citizen in 1913 by the
Goldsboro Rotary Club and honored
with a lifetime membership in 1869
by the Goldsboro Jaycees.
A Trouper from Northampton.
Britton, who was born in little
Milwaukee in Northampton County
decided he wanted to "enter the
theater" after seeing q tent gag
show when he was four. He was
doubly sure of his ambition when
as a fifth grader, he travelled to
nearby Murfreesboro to see a float
ing repertoire company and met
Edna Ferber, who was travelling
with the troupe to get material for
her book "Show Boat"
When Britton graduated from
Conway High School in 1886 his
father, an expert "fixer" Of me-
chanical saws, decided he should go
| to East Carolina College. But the
college in those days had no drama
tic arts group.
Britton solved that problem by
organizing a drama group within
five weeks after he landed on the
campus. BY his senior year, he was
directing plays at the rate Of three
| per term.
Nothing, / guess" said Britton,
l"could have kept me away from
the stage"