The Roanoker Sept/October 2023 - 13

in mid-sized and even small communities,
the plays provided opportunities not just for
wholesome entertainment but for attracting
visitors and their dollars. The first such tableau
was " The Lost Colony at Roanoke Island, "
which debuted in 1937. Others quickly followed,
such as " The Common Glory " at
Williamsburg, " Unto These Hills " in Cherokee,
NC, and " Horn in the West " at
Boone, NC, among numerous
others. The outdoor dramas provided
training for aspiring actors
and technicians, usually college
students, and conveyed narratives
on a large-scale with dance,
music and spectacle.
Goodwin believed Sherwood's
amphitheatre was the perfect
setting for the Roanoke Valley
to have an outdoor, symphonic
drama of its own. Being true to
his conviction that Sherwood
was a sacred place, he connected
with Kermit Hunter of
Hollins College about writing
the script for a religious production.
Hunter was indeed the
right man for the job. Hunter
had written the scripts for the
very popular " Horn in the West "
and " Unto These Hills, " but he
had also written numerous other
plays, some religious, and would
become the nation's most successful
and prolific writer of outdoor
dramas. Having arrived at Hollins
in 1955 as a drama instructor,
Hunter took up the challenge to
craft a sweeping religious pageant
for Sherwood's setting, and the
end result was an epic based on
the life of the Apostle Paul titled
" Thy Kingdom Come. "
To finance and promote
the production, the Roanoke Valley Drama
Association, a non-profit, was created that
sold shares in the play. By the spring of 1957,
Hunter's play was complete and tryouts were
launched for the nearly 100 openings for the
cast and crew. Some sang in a chorus, others
had minimal speaking parts, and a select few
were awarded the more considerable roles in
television and received an Emmy nomination.
" Thy Kingdom Come " premiered in June of
1957 for its first summer season. Patrons
parked along the serpentine drives within
Sherwood and watched under a starry sky.
The play ran through the end of August, and
by closing night over 22,000 persons had
attended the nation's only outdoor religious
the depiction of the Christian apostle's life. In
addition to the cast, technicians, seamstresses
and backstage crew were secured. Casting calls
were held locally but also in other communities
throughout Virginia and North Carolina.
One who garnered a role in the play, though
not the lead, was David Huddleston, who
would go on to a prolific career in film and
Some of the 100 cast members are seen
here during a 1958 performance.
drama. Most had been locals.
The drama, with its clear moral tone and
commercial draw, was touted by local civic
organizations for its second season. Lions
Clubs throughout the Roanoke Valley helped
sell tickets, and churches promoted it within
their respective denominations. Preparation
for the second season was much like that for
the first with multiple audition
sessions and small tweaks to
the script and staging. By the
end of the second season, however,
attendance had dropped
slightly. Most locals who had
seen the production in the inaugural
summer did not return for
the second. Thus, the Roanoke
Valley Drama Association knew
they needed to do more to attract
beyond the region in order make
Thy Kingdom Come to Roanoke
what Horn in the West was to
Boone.
The third season opened
A scene from the 1958 production of " Thy
Kingdom Come " highlights the life of the
Apostle Paul.
in June 1959 for the normal
10-week run, but the show was
plagued by rain during the first
four weeks. Thunderstorms cut
short many of the productions,
and tourist attendance did not
materialize. By early August,
only ten percent of the 2,000seat
amphitheatre was being
filled, and most of the ticketholders
had purchased the
cheaper seats on the top, back
tier. In an effort to salvage the
season, the crew went on a tour
of the state, making day trips to
perform vignettes of the play
to lunch-time audiences with
the hopes of attracting them to
the full-scale production. The
strategy did not work. Thus, by
mid-August, the drama association announced
with much regret that Thy Kingdom Come
would not complete its season and closed for
good. The cast and crew did, however, perform
one last time on August 31 before a packed
amphitheatre, as Kroger had bought out that
night's production for its annual employees'
summer picnic. I
NELSON HARRIS is a former mayor of Roanoke and author of a dozen books on the region's history. He is the minister at Heights Community Church in Roanoke and a past
president of the Historical Society of Western Virginia.
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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2023 13
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