Join Ocracoke Alive’s Annual Skipjack Wilma Lee Labor Day Gala!
Ocracoke Alive is celebrating and
hope you can join us for this year’s Skipjack Wilma Lee Labor Day Gala, Sunday,
September 6, 3-6 PM at the Community Square Docks on Ocracoke! In the spring of
2015 we completed repairs to the Skipjack Wilma Lee following storm damage
sustained during Hurricane Arthur. We are happy to announce that the Wilma Lee
is now in tip-top shape and has been hosting dockside talks and sailing trips
all summer season.
As we approach the fall of this
year, Ocracoke Alive is looking forward to furthering the development of
heritage and educational programs aboard our flagship! You can help! The
Skipjack Wilma Lee Labor Day Gala is a great way to join the fun and renew your
support. Drinks and light hors d'oeuvres will be served. Contributions of $100 or more will also
receive space on the Sunset Cruise following the party.
Please
make donations payable to Ocracoke Alive, PO Box 604, Ocracoke, NC 27960. Suggested
levels of contribution are $50, $100, $200, $500, & $1000. Online credit
card contributions can be made through Ocracoke Alive’s Skipjack Wilma Lee page at www.ocracokealive.org. The rain location for the event is the Working
Waterman’s exhibit, Community Square (thank you Ocracoke Foundation!). We
appreciate all of your help. Questions? Contact info@ocracokealive.org or (252)
921-0260.
A Tale of Blackbeard Musical Wraps up the 2015 Season
 |
| (Thanks to Eakin Howard for all these great photos!) |
On
Monday, August 17th, pirates uttered their final ARRGGs and Village
Girls danced their final numbers for the season, wrapping up a very successful
run of A Tale of Blackbeard.
Author and accompanist, Julie Howard, is now riding the train back to
her wintering grounds in Bellingham, WA and life is returning to normal for cast
and crew. Ocracoke Alive would like to give them an eight-cannon-salute for all
of their hard work throughout this year!
Casting began as early as March and
performers really put their hearts into the production with weekly rehearsals. “My favorite parts of community theater
are getting to know Ocracoke residents that I rarely cross paths with in my
daily life, and seeing what amazing talents are unearthed by the time the
production goes to stage.” said Ocracoke Alive board member David Tweedie (Mr Farthingham
this year). “Everyone has a gem of a performance hidden within their
personality. Community theater helps them uncover it and polish it up for the
everyone to celebrate. It is an
incredible labor of love, and well worth the effort!”
A
secondary goal for this year’s production was the adaptation of the Ocracoke
School gym into a theater space.
Ocracoke teacher and thespian, Charles Temple, led this design by
engineering curtain walls that created the illusion of a smaller theater space
within the huge expanse of the gymnasium.
With the lights off and strings of bulb lighting bordering the curtain
panels, the space was transformed into a 200 seat courtyard amphitheater. We look forward to the reappearance of
this new auditorium at future school & community productions.
Ocracoke
Alive would also like to thank this year’s directors, Courtney Conner &
Desiree Ricker, Ivey Belch for assistance in sound, Megan Alderidge and Katy
Mitchell for their makeup talents that helped the cast look lovely or exceptionally
disgusting, Mark Brown for set painting, Charles Temple for his light wizardry(and
George Roberson), Debbie Leonard & Karen Lovejoy for keeping the production
on the rails, Amy Campbell, Heather Johnson & Linda Ward for costuming,
Molly Lovejoy for running sound, Gary Davis and Sally Schwoeppe for managing
the box office and sales, Becky Boos and McKenzie Novak for prop management, and
all of the volunteers behind the scenes who sold tickets, constructed the sets,
and added their talents to the show.
Finally, a big thanks goes out to Ocracoke School PTA and Walt Padgett
for giving us all the support we needed to pull this off! A portion of profits from this year’s
show return to the Ocracoke PTA and remaining proceeds go towards helping
Ocracoke Alive create more great programming in the Ocracoke Community.
Ocracoke Alive Planning Island Heritage Program for Students
This
fall, Ocracoke Alive is planning a new community program called Island
Heritage. Board members, Desiree
Ricker, Allison O’Neal and David Tweedie have been meeting over the summer to
work on this new offering to Ocracoke students 4th grade through High
School. The working plan features
eleven weeks of workshop courses, beginning late September and running through
early December. The Ocracoke subjects
will range from Fishing and Crabbing, to Island History and Culture, to Cooking
& Gardening. Ocracoke Alive
will be partnering with the Afterschool program to bring this to the
community. Classes will be offered
to older students during the week and to younger students on Saturday
mornings. We will keep you posted
as the program develops. Feel free to contact us if you have questions or
suggestions. If you would like to help support the program with a donation, you
can do so through a link on the Ocracoke Alive donations page. Feel free to contact info@ocracokealive.org for more
information or call 252-921-0260.
