Potent Magic

When I came here in May to do the Colony I gathered up random stuff that I thought I would need or want while I was here for the summer, including about a dozen ragged old Company tee shirts, but I forgot one thing. Buried in the back of my sock drawer at home was a little box containing various Lost Colony anniversary medallions. I had Lisa mail it to me in time for Bob Knowles’ memorial service in June. In the box are three medallions, two 50^th Anniversary ones and a 60^th anniversary one.

The 50^th Anniversary medallions were worn by many Colonists in my early years with the show. The 50^th was 1987. I wasn’t in the show until 1992, but received a medallion as an opening night present from Robbie Fearn. The medallions were bronze and cheap - $5 I think, so they were affordable even to underpaid colonists and giving them as gifts was common. They were also available in silver and gold. The medallions were numbered. Mine is # 299. The other 50^th medallion I believe belongs to Lisa.

I also have a medallion from the 60^th anniversary. It is silver. Since one could request a number I got # 299.

Wearing medallions was very common in those days – the 90s. At Bob’s memorial I saw that only David Miller and I were wearing ours.

Along with the medallions in the little box that Lisa mailed to me was something I had forgotten about. A little leather bag with sand in it.

I at times go a little mad in my sentimentality about The Colony. Perhaps you’ve noticed. Here follows a tale of sentimental madness.

We came to The Colony as a family in 1992. Lisa had been there in 91 and I brought the kids to visit, watched the show a few times, and said: “Hey – I could do that.” So we did. I auditioned at locals and landed Old Tom. Lisa was promoted from Joyce to Dame, and the kids were kids. Max was eight and Alice was six. We lived in the Beehive; pretty sweet - a sound front cottage a short walk from the theater.

We did that for two summers. Lisa was bored being Dame and did not return in 1994. I was there by myself with the kids. Then in 1995 Lisa returned mid-summer as The Queen.

So this story takes place in either 1993 or 95 because Lisa was there. I know it wasn’t 92 because my sentimental attachment to the show didn’t happen the first year I was there. It grew on me over the course of time. You don’t really get it if you are only there for a year, it takes time to start to understand the Thing. The history – not only the story we tell but the history of the show; a history play that, in itself, has become a part of history. The thousands of people who have worked on it over the decades. The blood, sweat and tears that have been shed into the sand by those people. And you are linked to those people as surely as if they were family. It is a mighty Thing! You either get that or you don’t.

Also I had fallen in love with being Old Tom. He is probably the best role I have ever had and Waterside Theater is the biggest venue I’ve ever played. I played him for six years and all my life was dedicated to the role. My life revolved around it. What I ate and when I ate it, when and how much I slept. What I allowed myself to imbibe. Everything I did all summer revolved around hitting my peak between 8:30 and 11 every night.

I wanted to save the experience. I wanted to have something that would keep my passion for the show and the role alive in my heart and soul during the endless times between seasons. I wanted some of the Potent Magic of the Colony to carry me through the winter living in the mundane world. I cogitated for some weeks before deciding what to do.

Before the costumes were redesigned in 2007-08 Old Tom wore leather leggings that one would wrap around the legs and tie down. They were an endless bother, between every scene, and sometimes on stage during the scenes, retying the leggings. Because I have skinny legs the leggings wrapped almost twice around my legs. There was lots of excess leather. So one night after the show I cut a small piece out of it.

The costume shop manager that year was Carl Curnutte. Hey Carl! I willfully mutilated my costume. I’m sorry.

I stitched the piece of leather I had pilfered into a small bag and waited to see what I would do with it.

One morning (about noon) Lisa woke me up to tell me that an evacuation had been called because of an approaching hurricane. The big show was cancelled. We hurried to the theater and helped out with a hurricane strike: the lights were removed and placed in the rain shelter bathrooms, most set pieces and props were put in the gazebo or the dressing rooms, and all the costumes were packed into a u-haul truck which was parked at the LCB.

Most of the company evacuated. The Colony had bought out most of a motel in Greenville.

The Bridges didn’t evacuate. I don’t recall what my reasoning was but I decided that we would stay at least until the power went out and then skedaddle if it looked like it was going to be bad. I sent Lisa to the store to buy emergency supplies in case the power went out and we couldn’t leave. She famously brought back bags of microwavable frozen dinners, not realizing that if the power went out we wouldn’t be able to cook them or keep them frozen. Hey, it was her first hurricane.

So we waited. That’s mostly what you do when a hurricane is approaching. You watch the Weather Channel and wait to see what happens. Watching as a storm waxes and wanes in strength, keeping a close eye on the projected track, knowing that just a little shift in the strength or the track means the difference between a rainy windy day and RUN!

So we waited for two days, watching the Weather Channel and eating our microwave dinners. I recall going for a walk with some other Colony souls who didn’t evacuate. Julie Richardson, Steve Winemiller and Neil Ferguson were among them, Max and Alice were with us. We checked in on the theater. The wind was gale force by then. We all walked the parapet. Lisa and I had already descended the ladder and were standing in the sand when we had a heart stopping moment as the wind caught Alice and she almost got blown off the parapet, but she caught herself and we continued our walk. We went along the path that leads from the LCB circle to the west end where the old bridge leads to the mainland. I have a vivid memory of Neil screaming “Flee!” at the cars that were speeding their way to safety.

There were various hurricane parties that we attended but mostly we hung out at the Beehive.

When the storm made landfall it hit below the northern Outer Banks and tracked inland to our west. We only got the edge of it, a lot of wind and not even a lot of rain. Ironically its inland track took it over Greenville and the Colonists in the motel lost the power and suffered the brunt of the heavy rain, flooding and wind damage. We continued to sit in the Beehive watching TV and microwaving our food.

It was at about 2 am when the wind was at its highest that I took my little leather bag I had fashioned from my costume and walked to the theater. I was by myself because Lisa thought I was crazy. Not so – just high as a kite, which I guess can qualify as crazy.

I went to the stage and sat in the sand for awhile in the pitch dark and howling wind. I filled my little leather bag with on ounce or two of sand from the stage.

The sand from the stage - Potent Magic.

You will recall that at strike every year the sand gets boxed up in a makeshift plywood enclosure where it sits all winter and in the spring it is released, spread out and replenished with fresh sand. But it is the same sand. The sweat of everyone who has spent a summer doing the pageant is in that sand, along with all the passion and soul of The Lost Colony. All the generations of the Company are in that sand and every year the new members of the Company add a bit of their souls to it. If you’ve been in that sand a part of you is there.

I closed the bag with a bit of leather and hung it on a string and I wore it, along with my 50^th Anniversary medallion, every day through the endless mundane fall, winter and spring. When the foolishness of life crowded in on me I would touch it and roll it between my fingers, feeling the Potent Magic of the sand crunching inside.

Near the start of the following summer’s run I emptied the sand back onto the stage to mingle with the new Company, to be recharged by the love and work and dedication that would take place. At the end of the summer I refilled the bag, retied the strap, and hung it back around my neck.

Seasons come and go, cycles turn and time moves on. The Bridges ended their run at The Colony with the 1997 season. I was done, done, done with Old Tom. Six years as him was enough. A new director came in and Lisa got the ax. Only Max continued in 98 as a props assistant. The following year I got called in to play Ananias. I don’t think I did the sand in the bag thing that year. That season is not good in my memory.

But, again, cycles turn. Lisa came back for another four years with Terry Mann as director and I played Governor White in 2003. I definitely performed my little ritual of adding the sand back to the stage and refilling it at the end, although I was a little embarrassed by it.

The kids grew up and went their ways. Lisa and I moved away from Manteo. The little box with the medallions and the leather bag of sand were lost in the back of my sock drawer until I had Lisa dig it out and mail it to me a couple months ago.

Finding the bag brought memories and passions crashing back at me. In a way it frightened me, I have left it in the box on the shelf all summer, wondering if I could write about it, if I could revisit those glory days of The Bridge Family in The Lost Colony, if I could withstand the passions that caused me to mutilate Old Tom’s costume and make my way to the theater in the howling wind to capture some of the Potent Magic that signified that time of my life.

Tonight after the big show is the Dance Concert in the Gazebo. I’m taking the bag with me and after the concert I’m going to empty it in the sand on the stage, letting all the souls of all the generations join with the present, and on closing night I’ll fill it again so that I can take the Potent Magic with me when I rejoin the world.