Summer Performing Arts
The Lost Colony
In addition to its long-running outdoor dramas, North Carolina is home to a host of summer theaters, arts and music offerings. Now in its third decade of presenting professional theater, Southern Appalachian Repertory Theater draws talent from across the country to Mars Hill College each summer to perform musicals, comedies, dramas and new works that portray the rich cultural heritage of the people of Southern Appalachia. Originating in 1985, Lees-McRae Summer Theatre in Banner Elk annually produces three musicals, "Theatre for Young People," and three dramas with cultural themes. East Carolina University/Loessin Summer Theatre in Greenville produces musical, comic and dramatic presentations "at affordable prices" which encourage a broad, diverse audience attendance.
The UNC School of the Arts Summer Performance Festival takes place outdoors at Roanoke Island Festival Park in Manteo, featuring a variety of performances from Shakespeare, saxophones and singers to magicians, dancers and drummers. Officially designated The State Theatre of North Carolina, the Flat Rock Playhouse began with a few weeks of summer performances in 1940 and expanded them into an eight month season of plays including Broadway musicals, comedy, drama and theatre for young audiences. The Montford Park Players originated in 1973 with the goal of bringing Shakespeare and other classic plays to the mountains of Western North Carolina. Today they perform at the Montford Amphitheater in Asheville as an all-volunteer, non-profit organization, encouraging participation by people of all ages and backgrounds.
Founded in 1936, the Brevard Music Center in the Blue Ridge Mountains has has hosted more than 400 students, ages 14 through post-college who join professional musicians to "eat, breathe and sleep music" for seven weeks and participate in more than 80 public performances. For five summer weeks since 1962, the Eastern Music Festival and school at Guilford College in Greensboro has brought visiting artists, faculty and students together to study, rehearse and perform the world's great orchestral, chamber and piano music. More than 100 public events include innovative and eclectic schedules of alternative music performances as part of "EMFfringe."
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