Can the Blackbeard outdoor drama be revived?
A Greenville man says he wants to revive an outdoor drama he’s written about Blackbeard. Stuart Aronson, a retired speech and drama professor at East Carolina University, wrote the play — called “Blackbeard: Knight of the Black Flag” — in 1977. The two-act drama played for 10 years at the Bath Outdoor Theater, which is on the waterfront. “It might not have been the slickest or most professional production,” Aronson says, “but people loved it.” The discovery of what experts believe is Blackbeard’s ship off the North Carolina coast has spurred interest in almost anything associated with the pirate. The news got Aronson busy on a minor rewrite of his play: “It’s the story of Blackbeard trying to give up piracy. I used some poetic license.” In the play, Blackbeard marries a woman from Bath and tries to find legitimate work for his mates. But the townspeople don’t care for the pirates’ nightly carousing. Virginia Gov. Alexander Spottswood responds to their complaints by sending some Royal
