J. T. ADAMS,

PLAYWRIGHT/COMPOSER

SHIRLEY PAGE

PRODUCTION MANAGER

and the 40+ Christian families of the Cape Carteret area and local churches who made this project a sucess for 14 seasons!

     "By the Fall and Winter of 1987 I was working as an Emergency Room Physician at Onslow County Memorial Hospital in Jacksonville, North Carolina when I heard about the proposed "Passion Play" to be held during the coming summer (1988) at the Crystal Coast Amphitheatre, formerly the home of the outdoor drama "Blackbeard's Revenge".  The theme park was to be renovated, and a Christian play for tourists played there.  At the time my daughter Becky was studying acting at a community college in upstate New York, and I was hoping to be able to talk her into coming and staying with me in Garland, North Carolina for the summer season.   I drove out to Swansboro to talk to the people organizing "Worthy is the Lamb" about my daughter playing in this new play.   They were willing, and in the process talked me also into growing a beard and playing a "Pharisee" in the play.

      So it happened that I joined the group that began practicing that winter (1987-1988) at a local community hall for their part in the coming play, which would premiere the coming summer.   In the beginning we had no costumes, no props, and no complete sound track.   Just a lot of rather ordinary people of both sexes and all ages with a lot of enthusiasm and some time to spend.   We received no pay at this stage of the venture, but were promised that once the play started we would receive minimum wage for our time on the stage paid for out of gate receipts.  We danced, sang, and learned our parts well enough to lip-sync along with the pre-recorded songs and speeches.   And we were, indeed, a sorry bunch of unlikely "actors" when we started.   Later, when costumes started showing up, we began to believe that -- yes, we could do this!

      I had an arrangement with the directors that allowed me to be absent when I was scheduled to work in the Emergency Room, and chose on purpose a part that would not affect the play if I was absent on a particular night.    I had recently purchased a new, rather expensive, super VHS movie camera, and have a movie record of these earlier practice sessions when these earliest would-be actors and actresses ventured forth into the unknown.

       Meanwhile, down at the theme park, "Blackbeard's Revenge" was becoming a very different place.