BY WILL MOLINEUX

The organization which produces ‘‘The Common
Glory” this year marks its 25th anniversary.

And the Jamestown Corp. has good cause to cele-
brate. Its show, still going strong after more than
1,350 performances, has been seen by nearly two mil-
lion persohs — near records for theatrical endurance
and publie acceptability.

The 1971 season of “The Common Glory” — the
story of Thomas Jefferson and Virginia’s role in the
American Revolution —opens Thursday in the Lake
Matoaka Amphitheater in Williamsburg.

The idea of producing an outdoor drama of Vir-
ginia history was first expressed in 1942 after the
success of Paul Green’s ‘The Lost Colony” on Roan-
oke Island, N. C., was apparent. State Sen. William
Wright of Tappahannock, chairman of the Virginia
Conservation Commission, and Albert Sidney Johnson
of Smithfield, head of the James River Bridge Sys-
tem, are generally credited with advancing the idea
which had to be held in abeyance until the end of the
Second World War.

Unknown to them, Paul Green, who had visited
Williamsburg and Jamestown, had thought of it, too.

Sometime in 1945 Senator Wright, his assistant,
George Prince Arnold, and Johnson met in Williams-
burg with local leaders who readily endorsed the
project; they enlisted the help of Gov. Colgate W.
Darden Jr.

“He plunged inte ‘The Common Glory’ with char-
acteristic enthusiasm and distinct success,” recalls
Bela Norton, then a Colonial Williamsburg vice presi-
dent and one of the drama’s founding trustees. The
support of Governor Darden was to be, indeed, essen-
tial.

These men, and others, formed the “advisory
committee for the Jamestown pageant,” so named
because the original concept was to present a play
about the Jamestown settlers in an amphitheater to
be built on Jamestown Island.

By the beginning of 1946 the committee had re-
ceived its state charter as ‘‘an educational, historical,
literary and benevolent corporation.”’ Governor Dar-
den, who then was about to leave office, was named
president of the Jamestown Corp.; Williamsburg
Mayor Channing M. Hall, vice president; Senator
Wright, secretary, and Samuel H. Plummer, a New-
port News banker, treasurer.

The task which faced these men was great: they
had no money, no script and no theater — just a
desire to stage a play to instruct and inspire Ameri-
cans, especially young Americans. They approached
their venture as if it were an adventure.

Soliciting financial support was the initial concern.
Contributions to build a theater and produce the show
were sought across the state from industrialists and
club women, from philanthropists and school chil-
dren. The state, through the Conservation Commis-
sion, matched funds collected to meet the goal of
nearly $200,000.

Early in 1946 plans proceeded simultaneously on
two fronts: building an amphitheater and obtaining a
script.

Preliminary drawings were made for an am-
phitheater on Jamestown Island, but by late summer
it was obvious it would not be feasible. The roadway
to the island wasn’t good; there were problems with
utilities and sanitary facilities which couldn’t be
solved, and it was feared noise from the James River
férry, which then docked at the island, would inter-
fere with the show. And besides, as Darden later
confessed, the ticks at Jamestown “frightened” him.

The College of William and Mary offered 12 acres
of woodland adjacent to the road to Jamestown and
on a lake named Matoaka, for Pocahontas, and the
property laws leased. A gently sloping curve at the
shore was selected as the site for the 2,400-seat am-
phitheater. Robert Edmond Jones, the noted stage
designer, called it “the most beautiful natural am-
phitheater site I have ever seen.”

The amphitheater was designed in the shape of a
large horseshoe by Charles Major, the college archi-
tect. Dual pathways to the theater were laid out
through the dogwood, oak and pine by a Richmond

landscaper, Charles F. Gillette, in what he called a
“Mount Vernon gallop.”

Darden and the other sponsors had always thought
that Paul Green, a Pulitzer Prize winner and chief
exponent of the symphonic drama, should write the
Virginia drama. At the time, however, Green was in
Santa Monica, Calif., writing a screen play for MGM.
Darden called him and Green, who expressed his
long-held interest in such a project, agreed to meet

IN THE BEGINNING there was only the gentle sloping curve at shore of Lake Matoaka.

with corporation officials in Williamsburg on June 2,
1946 — exactly 25 years ago from this season’s open-
ing night.

“I am going to give you,” Green promised the
producers, “‘the greatest show of its kind that’ has
ever been given in America.”

Green, who immediately began his research for
the Virginia drama in the Huntington Library in
Pasadena, soon reported to Darden that he was

i. Fog a gH g

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AND THEN the “first nighters’’ jammed the theater on the night of July 17, 1947.

4 THE DAILY PRESS, Newport News - Hampton, Va., Sunday, June 20, 1971

 
“head over his at work on the drama and am dig-
ging up seme good stuff.”” He decided to focus his
drama on the Revolutionary period and call it “‘The
Common Glory.” He took the name from a statement
made by Samuel Adams in 1776: ‘‘For my own part,
I ask no greater blessing than to share with you the
common danger and the common glory.”

Early in 1947, while Green was working in Califor-
nia, a production staff was organized in Williams-
burg. The director of the University of Virginia Play-
ers, Roger Boyle, and the director of the William and
Mary Theater, the late Miss Althea Hunt, were se-
lected to direct the more than 150 actors, dancers and
Singers in the premiere production.

Howard Scammon, the current director, was an
assistant director. Others recruited from the William
and Mary faculty were Dr. Carl A. Fehr, the musical
director; Al Haak, technical director who continues
in that post this year; and Roger Sherman, scenery
and lighting designer who still is associated with the
Jamestown Corp. as executive vice president.

In addition to Secammon, Haak and Sherman, R.
Bruce Johnson of Richmond, assistant technical di-
rector, and Mrs. Rachel Hitchens of Williamsburg,
wardrobe mistress, have been members of the pro-
duction staff for the past 25 years.

Construction of the amphitheatre was slow. “The
weather. has immobilized us here,’ Darden wrote to

Paul Green in March. Two months later he reported: ~

“The progress being made on the theater is most
discouraging and its cost is almost prohibitive,’ even
though bricks for the light and sound towers and the
backstage dressing rooms were made at the state
penitentiary and some convict labor was used laying
them.

In June Green moved to Williamsburg and stayed
in The Brafferton on the William and Mary campus
to polish the script and attend rehearsals.

Two New York stage actors were given the key
roles. Robert Dale Martin was the narrator and Wil-
liam W. Smithers, who often appears in TV dramas,
portrayed Jefferson. (Walter Brooke, who also is a
television performer, was Jefferson in 1948 and 1949.)

Mest of the other cast members were Virginians
as one of the principal objectives of the Jamestown
Corp. was to serve, as Darden put it, ‘‘as a vehicle
for the training of Virginia talent.”

In the final hectic days before opening night —
what Paul Green called ‘‘the turmoil of launching”’—

“oOo

everything was made ready. The amphitheatre was~

completed with the help of choir members and Gov-
ernor Darden who pitched in to paint the wooden
seats. The script was finished in time for rehearsals.
Hundrecs of costumes were made. Tickets went on
sale. And a deluge of publicity heightened public in-
terest.

“The Common Glory” opened to a full house July
17, 1947. A special train brought dignitaries from
Richmond. Drama critics from New York and

prs lta

P

Green does some “sidewalk

$3

superintending” as the amphitheater begins to take shape

Paul Green, left, confers in 1947 with former Governor Colgate Darden Jr., who spear-
headed the venture.

Raleigh and most Virginia cities were on hand. So
was Virginia-born Lady Astor, the first woman mem-
ber of the British House of Commons.

For a while approaching thunderstorms threatened
to damped the gala occasion, but they passed by on
both sides of Williamsburg. The only unfortunate
event that night happened to Walter C. Martin, a
corportation trustee. He fell and broke a leg — liter-
ally carrying out the old theatrical adage!

“The Common Glory” was widely acclaimed, con-
sirming Green’s prideful promise. More than 90,000
persons saw the drama that first summer.

Over the years ‘‘The Common Glory’ has had
some other exciting times — during the 1957 James-
town Festival, for instance — and some dismal times
when rain, excessive heat and economic reverses

‘threatened... -

The Jamestown Corp. produced another Paul
Green drama, ‘‘The Founders, The Story of James-
town,” which was presented in the afternoons in a
small, rustic amphitheatre in 1957 and 1958 while
“The Common Glory’’ was given in the evenings.
“The Founders” replaced ‘‘The Common Glory” in
the Lake Matoaka Amphitheatre in 1964 — hence the
show itself is now only in its 24th season, although it
is 25 years-old.

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around him.

THE DAILY PRESS, Newport News - Hampton, Va., Sunday, June 20, 1971

At least three times —hbefore the seasons of 1951,
1959 and 1965 Virginians helped rescue the finan-
cially troubled Jamestown Corp. with noninterest-
bearing loans, all of which were repaid, and outright
gifts. The recurring problem of financial loss because
of.inclement weather was resoleved in 1967 when an
agreement was reached with William and Mary to
put on the show in Phi Beta Kappa Hall when it was
rained out at the nearby amphitheatre.

In carrying out its obligation as an educational
corporation, the Jamestown Corp., in the past quarter
century, has awarded more than $25;000 in scholar-
ships and in the commissioning of new dramatic
works about American history. The corporation also
has spent $20,000 on the Summer Theatre Institute,

established in 1967 in conjunction with William and
Mary. - ~ : :

More than 1,250 persons — most of them Virgi-
nians — have appeared in “The Common Glory”
cast. And some very successful. theatrical careers
have been launched from the Lake Matoaka Amphi-
theatre: the Bray Brothers: from Yorktown, Jim and
Ben, both have written for the stage and teach
drama; Linda Lavin is a sought-after star on Broad-
way and Goldie Hawn, for two years a dancer, has

charmed her way in Hollywood to become an Oscar
winner.

The Jamestown Corp. has supported the work of
the Shakespearean Players, the cast members who
present Shakespeare on their nights off. It also has

supported summer choir concerts and dance pro-
grams.

And, too, the Jamestown Corp. has helped adver-
tise the Historic Triangle of Jamestown, Williams-
burg and Yorktown by promoting tourism to Virginia.

The accomplishments of the Jamestown Corp. do,
indeed, merit notice on its 25th anniversary: it has
_focused attention on Virginia roles in establishing
America’s democracy and it has fostered interest in
drama.

The Jamestown Corp. believes that it has much to
be proud of, but the thing in which Del. Lewis A.
McMurran Jr. of Newport News, currently the corpo-
ration president and chairman, takes the most satis-
faction is that through ‘“‘The Common Glory”’ Ameri-
cans are reminded that the struggle to keep freedom
is a continual one.

Thomas Jefferson, speaking in “The Common
Glory,” ‘“‘says it best,’” McMurran believes, when he
says:

“Today we are calling for men, today we are call-
ing for women, for consecration of character, for sta-
mina — that the principles in which we believe may
live! This is not to be a government of a few people,
but of all the people. These are the things we must
fight for —must be willing to die for. And the
struggle to make these principles prevail shall be the
common glory of us all.”

3

 
g New York actor Walter Brooke (above)
oe Se = . 2 vb’ who portrayed Thomas Jefferson in 1948

a eins SS and 1949,
Some of the cast members in the first = a a ; yom Sat ncamee
season are, left to right, Ronald King, ee | emi 3 = a see cane mes oe
Virginia James, Ken Lassiter and Eugene e : aes
Black. The performers shared in the gate
receipts Sept. 14, the closing night of the

1947 season.

Paul Green, in necktie, goes over the
script with some of the actors who ap-
peared in the first production while work
on the Lake Mateaka Amphitheater con-
tinues early in the summer of 1947.

Paul Green, left, and Howard Scammon,
director of ‘The Common Glory,’’ discuss

fife opening of one of the early seasons.

at

THE DAILY PRESS, Newport News -Hampton, Va. Sunday, June 20, 1008