One aspect of the Postcard Collection that separates it from many of our other collections has to do with the souvenir/promotional aspect of postcards. While the majority of our other collections focus heavily on the larger historic theatre chains and the grandest movie palaces, the Postcard Collection has an overall more eclectic range.

The theatre shown here, the Waterside Theatre on Roanoke Island, North Carolina, is not the usual fare of the American Theatre Architecture Archives, but it is definitely  a part of American theatre history. As the card says, this theatre is famous for “The Lost Colony,” which opened in 1937 and is currently the second longest running historical outdoor drama in the United States.

The Symphonic Outdoor Drama, a performance genre exemplified by “The Lost Colony,” was imagined by playwright Paul Green  as a form of accessible folk-drama, or, people’s theatre that would provide a creative spectacle to bring pride to a region’s people.

“By ‘people’s theatre’, I mean theatre in which plays are written, acted and produced for and by the people for their enjoyment and enrichment and not for any special monetary profit." 
– Paul Green, 1938.

(credit: American Theatre Architecture Archive, Theatre Historical Society of America)