THE LOST COLONY
The Waterside Theater, Manteo NC
Props Technician, 2025
The Lost Colony is a Tony-award winning outdoor drama that has been running since 1937. It tells the story of the first colony to come to America, but later went missing and earned themselves the title of America's oldest mystery.
Directed by Jeff Whiting - Technical Director Dave Boyd
Click on images to expand!
As props technician, I was responsible for managing the stage left props storage and table, as well as doing basic repairs and touch ups in between shows. During the season, I also received fire training and handled live fire during every performance.
The Lost Colony performs six nights a week, running from June through August. I had the pleasure of working on the show during its 88th season.
This is what my prop table looks like at the top of Act 2!
At the start of the season, one of the first tasks we had was to repair the backstage area. The backstage at The Waterside Theater is unique because it sits directly on the sound, meaning that the wood gets wet and rots very easily. We replaced many deck boards back stage as well as on the main stage. The boards on the main stage needed to be stained and aged to match the rest.
During the off-season, several painted windows in on-stage cabins had been damaged.
There are speaker inside of the cabins, so we had to paint the window pattern on burlap, as to not muffle the sound.
We started by stapling the burlap to the frames. When painting, we had to be careful not to clog the pores of the burlap to allow sound to travel through as seamlessly as possible.
Completed windows installed in cabins
The Lost Colony features a large ship replica that rolls behind the stage to symbolize the colonists traveling from England to America. The boat pieces suffered from salt and water damage during the previous season and needed to be repaired. After the technical director sandblasted the pieces, I assisted in painting them with a rust-proof paint using a pneumatic spray gun.
We then assembled the framework on the track behind the stage.
We then had to use a boom lift to finish rigging the sails. I got to practice operating the lift for a short amount of time.
Technical Director: Dave Boyd
Assistant Technical Direction: Zie Wilhelm
Stage Manager: Harmoni Thompson
Property Master: Anieceia Knight-Thompson
Props Technician: Finley Stone