The coastland times with which is combined the pilot and herald of Belhaven and Swan Quarter., 1962-07-13

| ROANOKE ISdnu WaCerSlue
Theatre, the pine-nestled, star
canopied, home of "The Lost
Colony" is rough-hewn pro-
duct sprung from the mind and
arm of a cigar-chewing waffle
and-daub personality known af-
fectionately as skipper Bell"
A. @. skipper" Bell, the de-
signer and builder, is a tall ICON
oclast of an Engishman, born in
Lubenanham, who moved to
North Carolina in 1920 after
several years of odd-jobbing in
Canada, because, as he says, 81
thought the bloody place was
tropical" Skipper did find e.
nough wind, trees, sun and water
on the skinless gratis of sand
which natives call the Outer
Banks to sustain his interest
and, fortunately, he's been here
ever since.
Skipper Bell designed and
constructed the theater in 1887
when, as he puts it, "they asked
me to do a job" 1t was fashion
ed as a temporary structure to
house play which Paul Green
had written to commemorate the
350th anniversary of the birth
of Virginia Dare. The fact that
a major restoration of the thea
ter was not considered necessary
until 25 years later, in 1862, is a
tribute to Bells handiwork as a
craftsman and suggests that
here was one, at least, who shar-
ed Ben Dixon McNeill's belief
that the author from Chapel Hill
had written an Immortal
drama.
The initial year was undoubt-
edly the toughest for Skipper
When Bradford Fearing, ther
executive-secretary of the Roa'
noke Island Historical Assicia'
ton, gave Bell the go-ahead or
the project in 1887, there wa:
nothing at the theater site ex
cept trees, large dune and
fitful body of restless water
known as Roanoke Sound. In les!
than six months time, Skipper
had constructed here an inspired
replica of the 10Th Century for
whose jagged timbers enclosed
the dream of a nations destiny
The job, which was accomp
lished with w. P. A. labor, beg
ged, borrowed and sometimes
"stolen" materials, was made
little easier, according to Bell
because of the presence of Wat
son Drinkwater, a Twentieth
Century "Old Tom," who levelet
the bothersome dunes as ht
trudged behind a cantankerou:
mule with a scoop. 'EHe was just
the kind of man with a spirit Sc
Infectious that it kept US go
ing" Skipper says. Watson
Drinkwater, with only one lung
stubborn mule and a salty
philosophy, somehow made life
becarable for the wind-scorched
laborers, who fought against
storms in January and mosqui-
toes in June to anchor a stage
and seats on the sand shore OF
Roanoke Sound. He was, as
Skipper says, "the happiest man
ever met in my life"
By June of 1887, the stage
was constructed by placing it on
piled supports to offset the ero-
sion problem created by jealous
sound water, which threatens
the Waterside Theater even un-
to the present day, in a never
ceasing struggle to reclaim tine
shoreline. Dressing rooms were
built, walkways were fashioned
and, family, grass was planteo
to form a green carpet beneath
wooden benches as a finishing
to the 3,000-seat theater under
the stars.
Skipper Bell was, as is his
| custom, somewhere in the back
| ground during opening night
when "The Lost Colony" gave
its first performance. 1t was as
Skipper says, "a night to be re.
membered, when rain, lightning
mosquitoes and tree frogs al
We'd with a dedicated cast, fol
the attention of an audience
The actors triumph is attestec
to by the fact that % nights
later a special performance o1
"The Lost Colony" was giver
for the then president of the
United States, Franklin Delane
Roosevelt, an ardent admirer o1
the play.
After the first season, jetties
were constructed to preserve the
theater and the historic soil on
which it was anchored. The play
continued to draw vast throngs
to Roanoke Island, thanks in no
small measure to Shippers rea-
listic theater where juniper logs
structural timber, putty and
thatched roofs seemed to effuse