[gentle orchestral fanfare]

♪

[resonant strings lead
building orchestration]

(male narrator)
Welcome to Our State ,

a production of UNC-TV

in association
with Our State magazine--

for over 75 years

bringing readers
the wonders of North Carolina.

On this edition...

Tony Award-winning designer
William Ivey Long

returns to his roots
at The Lost Colony...

[chanting and drumming]

then, head to the woods

with naturalist, herbalist,
and storyteller Doug Elliott

for a glimpse at his southern
Appalachian lifestyle

and his passion
to connect with nature.

[mellow guitar
and piano arrangement]

[firewood crackling
and crickets chirping]

[gentle piano melody]

(male announcer)
Since 1872,

BB&T has been supporting
the people and communities

of North Carolina.

From our small-town roots

to the banking network
you see today,

we've always been here
for all our clients,

stretching from Manteo...
to Murphy.

We're proud of our heritage

as the oldest bank
in North Carolina,

and we're very proud
to provide funding

for Our State .

♪

Quality public television
is made possible

through the financial
contributions

of viewers like you,

who invite you to join them
in supporting UNC-TV.

[piano and clarinet interlude]

♪

[dramatic arrangement]

[fire crackling]

(narrator)
September 11th, 2007,

a catastrophic day

for North Carolina's
most famous outdoor drama--

[dark piano
and string composition]

all the costumes
for The Lost Colony

reduced to ashes.

♪

I get a phone call

from the producer
at that point, and, uh--

saying every piece
of clothing,

every piece of history,
every reference book,

every book, every armor,
Andy Griffith's sword,

all burned up, all gone,
all the history of design,

the history of design
through all those decades

was gone in a flash,
and then AP called.

Their question was,

"Well, what's the most
valuable thing you lost?"

And I said,
"Oh, Andy Griffith's sword!

He wore it
as Sir Walter Raleigh."

We kept it, and we used it
on special nights,

and you know,
it was irreplaceable

because it's in all
the photographs.

He's kneeling, holding it,
and everything.

And, uh, the next morning,
in the morning,

[imitating Andy Griffith]
"Billy? This is Andy.

I've got the sword."

(narrator)
William Ivey Long
knows every prop

and stitch of clothing
in The Lost Colony.

He grew up there,
in fact,

but it wasn't
his first theater experience.

(Long)
Well, once upon a time,

when I was, I guess,
six weeks old,

I was brought back

from the hospital experience
in Raleigh

to the outdoor amphitheater
of the Raleigh Little Theater

stage left dressing room.

It is still there
to this day,

and that became
my first home--

first home with walls
and a ceiling--

and I lived there
with my parents

for three years--
my first three years--

until my brother was expected,
and then they thought,

"Maybe we should have
a proper home."

But it was
my first proper home,

and you can remember
back to three.

I remember, you--
you would open the door

outside of that--
you know, to go outside,

and the first step you took
was onto the stage.

Then to the left
would be the auditorium

and all the seats,
and to the right--

much more important for me--
was the rose garden,

because there was a fountain

with a cherub
holding a dolphin

and all these roses,
but mostly

there was the fountain
and the water,

and I just wanted
to go swimming all the time.

And to grow up,
literally, on a stage

has set the tone
for my entire life.

My parents--
I'm named after my father,

who was William Ivey Long,
and my mother Mary Wood Long.

They both
were from farm families--

actually, my father
from farm family,

my mother from lumber family.

They met at Chapel Hill.

They both
were Carolina PlayMakers,

which was one of the sponsors
of The Lost Colony.

The Carolina PlayMakers
were, uh, focused and--

and concerned
about folk drama.

And of course,
The Lost Colony

is sort of
the ultimate folk drama.

It's the beginning
of who we are,

first colony, uh,
established in North America

by English people.

My brother and I
and my sister, uh,

have all been
in The Lost Colony.

We had to wait
until we were eight,

and then,
they deemed us old enough

to be allowed to run around
in the dark, barefooted,

backstage
with strange theater people,

and then by 12,
I was prop master.

I was precocious.

I'm a natural list maker.

I'm a Virgo,
born in August,

so, of course,
I'm organized and make lists,

so, of course,
you know,

prop master
was the natural next step.

But by 18,
I was tech director myself.

Then I went off to school
at Yale drama school,

which is all about the plays--
"the play's the thing."

I was a set designer.

That's what I wanted to do.

I was gonna be
the stage designer

of all time.

And I've taken only
one course in costume design

in my entire life.

Isn't that crazy?

[swelling strings
introduce busy score]

(narrator)
Like all aspiring
theater people,

William felt the pull
of New York City.

♪

(Long)
I was, at the beginning--

I moved
to the famous Chelsea Hotel,

because I was, uh,
just desperate to be--

land in the middle of it,
in the thick of New York.

Well, boy, did I--
ha, ha, ha!

The famous,
infamous Chelsea Hotel--

I lived there
for my first five years

on the front,

next to the Chelsea Hotel
sign, uh,

and I was in room 411.

What is 411?

That's information.

So I would get calls
on the house phone

from the most
interesting voices

that sound oddly familiar,
and I had a phone book,

and I would look up the number
and tell it to 'em.

So, I have never--
I've almost never, never,

never gotten a job
from an interview.

I have only gotten a job
from the person

who sat to the left
of me in school

or to the right of me

and with whom
I did a lot of productions

and saved the day with,
"Oh, here's the perfect--"

fill in the blank:

shirt, shoe,
blouse, pannier, um.

"Oh, I understand how to solve
that character dilemma.

Let me think--
figure it out."

So that's the only way
I've ever gotten any jobs.

So I never got a--
for three years,

no one would hire me.

Finally,
I get a call.

A friend of mine had a job
as the set designer

for Inspector General

at the Circle in the Square,
and the late, great--

he just passed away--
Liviu Ciulei,

Romanian director,
was directing it.

He said, "Oh, get me someone
to do the costumes."

So she said,
"I've got a friend--"

He said, "Fine,
let's just start work."

So, I didn't even interview.

I just came
with my portfolio, so proud.

"Oh, look,
maybe you get this job,"

and he just started
giving me notes.

That's how I got
my first Broadway show.

Just like that--
"Oh, I've got a friend."

♪

(man)
Yes, of course,
he's fashionable,

but that's not why
you hire William

to create your costumes.

You hire him
because he understands

he's designing for character,

for theme, for plot,
and, of course, uh,

he's sexy and fashionable.

But it's the other stuff
that comes first.

How do you tell the story?

And William
is extremely helpful, uh, in--

in carrying his weight
in telling the story

that the author intended.

I--I start
by reading the play

and researching the period,
and, you see--and, oh, it--

it's high--high style;
it's high style.

It's rich people in Paris
who go out the weekend

to misbehave,
and, of course,

it all--
all hell breaks loose.

And so this is 1959,
uh, Balenciaga.

These are--because
they do dress for dinner,

it's called
Don't Dress for Dinner,

but they do dress
for dinner now.

[sarcastically]
Ha, ha, ha!

Anyway, uh, look at these
reference pictures.

I always do
this beforehand

and surround myself
with walls and walls

of these research
pictures, but John--

the set designer
came and, you see,

his original set
was very beige,

but after looking
at how well

these colors work
with everything, um,

he brought in more
of this burnt umber,

this very light burnt umber,

just to say,
and I people them

after the set designer's
created the world.

Who...are...you?

Me?

(man #2)
It's her; you know who.

I haven't the
faintest idea who!

Why do you
think I was
going bananas?

Trying to
keep warm?

I didn't know
what you
were doing.

You mean,
it isn't her.

Course it isn't her!

Well, if it
isn't her,
who is it?

That's what
I'm trying
to find out!

[audience chuckling]

Who are you?

I'm his girlfriend.

[audience laughing]

(Long)
And I do my first sketches

after the research,
like this.

These are called thumbnails.

Here are the men;
here's the husband,

the lover,
and the husband of the cook.

And I show them in order,
and then I color them in,

and you can actually--

when you see
these bigger pictures,

you can see that
I'

ve really sort of solved

most of the proportion
an

d color problems right here.

And here are the ladies
an

d the same thing--

here's the mistress,
th

e wife, and the cook.

So then I do her big ball gown,
you see, blue.

I have this theory
that ladies of the house

either dress to stand out
from their environs--

environments
or to blend into it, um.

She stand out from it,
'cause the blue stands out

from all this beige.

The best friend
and lover of the wife--

I match them up.

You do things like this.

I call it
Kiss Me, Kate designing.

They are matched
because they are the ones

having an affair
at the beginning.

This is not
in the script.

This is what I proffered
to the production.

Well, the day begins
with the staff coming at 9.

So I've prepared
all the projects

and their notes--
really annoying notes--

on everyone's desk,

and then
we're off and running.

And the phones start ringing,
and all the projects call.

"I need this; I need that."

So there's a lot
of technical support work

that's done, first off,
around the globe,

whatever country
Chicago is touring

or something else
our producers--

Hairspray, they're still
touring all around--

and then the--the actual--
that day, uh, begins.

And sometimes,
people come for fittings.

Sometimes,
I go to fittings.

Then, if it's rehearsing
in the afternoon,

the latest show,
I go and have a wig fitting,

or they want to show me
a new dance number

and why the shoes
are not working,

and I do that, and then
the evening performance.

I'm supposed to be
at least two--

at two shows
in previews tonight.

So I will go
back and forth,

and then I go for notes
afterwards.

So I'm done
by about 1 o'clock--1 a.m.--

and then I get up at 5.

Now, that's not all the time.

That's--
that's on a good day.

I'm happy to be working.

(narrator)
Seaboard, North Carolina,
up in Northampton County,

is about as different
from New York as you can get,

but it's William's
family home,

and it tugs at him.

As the town's fortunes
have declined,

William has stepped in,
putting in a health clinic,

buying the old school

where his father
learned playwriting...

(Long)
We took out
all the really rotted stuff

so we could get
at the asbestos.

Now, it looks just insane.

I love the way it looks.

I actually love the way
this looks--

very Tennessee Williams.

(narrator)
...and partnering

with North Carolina
State University

on a school
of fashion and costume.

And I've spent the last--
about 12 years, uh,

trying to help the town
become whole again.

(narrator)
A home in New York

and a home in Seaboard
should be enough

for one person, right?

Especially someone as busy
as William Ivey Long.

Then I just thought,
OK, now I'm sailing.

I've broken through the curse
of no one will hire me,

and look, I'm doing this one
and this one.

Oh, I'm not going back.

You know, I won't go back
to Lost Colony.

I've got more things--
more important things to do,

and I just thought, "Oh,
I'm gonna be a New Yorker."

Well, for 15 years I tried.

So then I come back
to the 50th anniversary.

Good grief.

I was blown away.

Somehow it was the right time,
the right place.

I was at the right moment,
and I thought--

I had one
of those lightbulbs,

those big lightbulbs
that go off,

those Edison lightbulbs,

and I realized
that I had learned

every single thing I knew
down here.

And I thought, "Well, I--

I just have
to work there again."

[fire crackling]

The phoenix quotient--
heh--

out of the flames, uh--

the phoenix bird morphed
into historical accuracy.

That was the phoenix
because we had a chance

for the very first time
since 1937 to reimagine,

all at the same time,
the entire picture.

I watched him
as he was doing,

off and on,
the new Indian costumes.

He went to the only source
we have.

Governor John White,
who was in the 1584 expedition

and the '85
and the '87 expedition

to Roanoke Island,
had drawn the Native Indians,

kings, maidens,
and so forth,

and William Ivey took
those sketches of John White

and interpreted them

so that they
could be used for years.

We never have a costume
that is made for one year.

Ten years, at least,
they've got to be worn,

and that was a real, uh--

a real change in the Colony
when he did that.

I am optimistic that
The Lost Colony will survive.

There is a story
being told here,

and it goes to the root--

hokey, uh,
corny, uh,

grassroots--

all those
seemingly negative terms.

Guess what?

That's what hits the heart.

Franklin Roosevelt
came to the opening

or came to Virginia Dare's
birthday for a reason.

He showed up and said,
"This is important--

story to tell."

We're still doing it.

It, uh--
it engages one's connection

across the decades

and the centuries
to man striving to, you know,

be the best he can be.

Dreams come true.

Dreams fail,
but you still stick with it.

I mean,
these are great, great themes,

and we're still doing it.

Now more than ever,
we need to believe

we can conquer this.

It's a wonderful story.

It's a true story,
and it's our story.

[piano and string
arrangement fades]

[strings
re

sonating]

♪

[plucked guitar joins]

♪

(Elliott)
I just was one
of those nature kids.

You know, I was born
with this passion.

♪

You know,
I'd gotten out of college.

I was radical;
I was excited about life--

had a B.A. degree in art;
I was totally unemployable.

So I thought,
what could I do?

I wanted to explore
up into Canada.

We were campin' out,
and I kept lookin' around.

There were snow-capped
mountains all around me,

so I started climbin'
up this mountain.

It was like the earth
and the sky were one.

So I started
just drawing pictures of that.

It was--
it was awesome.

I didn't want to spend
the night there,

so I went down.

I got to the spruce
and fir trees.

All of a sudden--
[flapping noise]

this big bird flew up.

It was like a grouse
but wasn't like any grouse

I'd ever seen before.

I pulled
my sketchbook out.

I started sketchin'
this bird.

♪

Then that bird flew away,
and I thought,

holy cow,
I'm a wildlife artist!

Did National Geographic
hire me?

Well, not exactly.

I climbed the mountain
and started doin' it,

and I realized right then,
if I wanted to do something--

was not wait for validation,
not wait for a job,

but just go for it
with passion,

with integrity,
with humility, determination.

And it was probably
10 or 15 years later,

I was talkin'
to a Native American.

He asked me if I'd ever seen
a spruce grouse.

He says, "Well, you know,
we consider spruce grouse

"to be a messenger bird.

"When it comes around,
you might pay attention

because often it brings
an important message."

And I thought,
yeah, I think I know

what we're talkin' about.

And you know, in some ways
that kinda influenced my life.

[wandering piano melody leads]

♪

I've been livin'
in western North Carolina

for probably
the last 30 years.

♪

What attracted me here
was the cultural integrity...

♪

basically, many people

who have a deep relationship
with the land.

Some of my best teachers

have been traditional
Appalachian folks

and Native Americans
and just broadened

whatever book learnin'
I could ever get.

♪

And there is this story
about the old-timers

sittin' around the store,

[chuckling]
up on one of these
back roads over here,

sittin' round the store
saying, "Yep, saw ole Zeke.

"He was out there
plowin' with his mule.

"Yep, had his hippie
with him"--hah, hah!

I think I know
who they're talkin' about...

[laughing]

'cause I certainly
have spent my time

following the footprints

of wise old-timers,
you know.

♪

Our drinkin' water--we only
drink a gallon or two a day,

and there's a little spring
that's below the house,

so we just
go and fetch it.

In some ways, that's sort of
a pleasant routine.

There you go.

Fresh, mature spring water
right out of the mountain.

♪

We have runnin' water
to the house,

but it's creek water.

[waterfall hissing]

Well, the creek does have
a little waterfall.

♪

And there's a little
catchment basin

that catches the water.

It runs through a couple
of settling tanks.

Then, we have a buried pipe
all the way to the house.

It's clean water,
but we don't drink that

'cause we don't know who waded
through it the night before.

What that does--that gives us
incredible water pressure,

so even during a drought,
Yanna can water the garden

and keep an irrigation
system goin'.

It's a nice little scene.

Thank goodness my wife Yanna
has a passion for gardening.

(man)
Looks like
a pretty good pepper year.

(Elliott)
Yep, good peppers, man.

They are so pretty.

This is great.

I'm tryin' to keep
these tied up.

So this is the time of year
when everything is comin' in,

so our job now
is to celebrate the harvest.

(man)
Yeah, let's eat one fresh.

(Elliott)
So we eat
as much fresh as we can.

We try to can it;
we try to dry it.

We freeze it so we have enough
to last all winter.

Yanna's so good about that.

She takes a tally of how much
we eat during a normal year,

and then, she'll usually
preserve about 1 1/2 times

just in case the next year
doesn't produce real well.

Plants have some of the same
struggles that all of us have.

How do you get along
in this world,

protect yourself
from invasive things,

protect yourself from pests?

Often, the plants
that are most nutritious

have something to keep things
from eating 'em.

These are stingin' nettles.

Reason they call them
stinging nettles

is 'cause they have
little, tiny hairs.

They actually inject you
with formic acid.

That's the same thing
that an ant stings you with.

Sometimes, the mountain people
call it seven-minute itch

'cause it kinda gets on ya
for about seven minutes,

but it's usually not much
of a problem after that.

My sweet wife Yanna,

she likes to use it
as a nerve tonic.

If she's feeling
a little carpal syndrome,

she'll actually apply
some of that to her hands.

So even though
this plant will sting you

when it's fresh and live,
if you pick it carefully,

then you can take it in...

[clinking]

drop it into boiling water,

let it simmer for just
a couple of minutes,

and it'll turn it
into a delicious vegetable.

It's one of the most
nutritious plants

that we have
here in the garden.

They're good!

[resonating tones
support piano]

♪

We're all part
of this miracle of creation,

and sometimes,
I think that my desire

to know
about all these creatures

is part of wanting
to know myself.

♪

You know, the favorite line
my dad used to say,

"That boy knows
what's under every rock

between here and town."

And I still turn over rocks,

and you know, I'm still
lookin' for critters,

but I'm also lookin'
for the stories

that connect those critters,

the stories that connect
those critters to us.

And so I guess
part of my passion

has been trying to find
more points of contact.

♪

Look what's here
on this little persimmon tree.

This is a hickory-horned
devil caterpillar.

This is one of our
most amazing caterpillars,

and look at the horns
on this little devil.

They're absolutely harmless,
but they are probably

one of our most
extraordinary caterpillars,

and this one's
only about half-grown.

When they're full grown,

they're almost
six inches long.

What a critter!

It'll turn
into a great, big moth.

My friend Scott Geouge
always says,

everything's
got its weak point,

its vulnerable points.

You grab the crab from behind;
you can hold it safely.

You hold the rattlesnake
behind its head.

You can hold it safely.

Hold a possum by the tail.

You can hold it safely.

[Jew's harp twanging]

♪

Yeah, look at this rascal.

Ain't she
a beauty?!

Let's see.

Yep, she--
heh, heh!

Ya know how I can tell?

Look at that,
she's got a pouch.

Our only marsupial
in North America

has a pouch like a kangaroo.

And look at this,

very few creatures
in the world

that have opposable thumbs,
humans and possums.

You know, humans--

we've used
our opposable thumbs

to build great civilizations.

Possums, they've been
usin' theirs just to hold on,

and they have been holdin' on
for a long time.

The first
little mammals
that showed up

after the age
of dinosaurs

were almost identical
to our modern possums.

We maybe let you
get back home.

Go on,
take care there, little gal.

You know,
sometimes people say, "Oh,

I can't stand
those old possums."

Some scientists did
some stomach analysis studies,

and they found out
that in some areas,

half of their diet
is copperheads.

I mean,
you like copperheads?

♪

Oh...look at this beauty!

Oh my!

This is a black rat snake.

Sometimes, people in Carolina,
they call these king snakes.

These are kind
of the arboreal snakes.

They really
like to climb around.

They're the ones
that you'll find

sometimes in your attic
or in your barn.

They call them rat snakes
'cause they love rats.

Oh, what a beauty!

You know people say,
snakes are aggressive.

They're very rarely
aggressive.

They're defensive sometimes.

Sometimes,
they get really scared,

and they'll bite at you, and--

He'll get his freedom here
soon enough--hmm, hmm.

All right, now we're gonna do
the old snake-charmer trick.

[wood flute leads]

♪

Isn't that
in

credible,

the muscular
control of a
beast like that.

Look at that!

Look at how
much of its body
is straight up.

♪

Looks like
it's been well fed,

which is,
of course, good news

'cause with all the voles
and things in our garden,

we are so glad to have

a few of these
big, fat snakes around.

♪

[piano leads]

You know, some say, this is
like this little Eden here

with all your gardens
and ponds and swamps,

things like that.

You have to realize
that Eden is everywhere

if we can
just sorta tweak our eye,

open our heart,
and realize it,

even if it's
a suburban backyard.

Nature just wants to be
a part of our lives

since we are a part of nature.

♪

It's such an honor
that people

actually wanna hear
what I have to say,

and I'm just so lucky

that people think
that's of value.

Well, you know,
we all tell stories.

When I ask you
what you did today,

you're basically composing
a narrative.

That's how we make sense
of our lives.

There was the story
about the African tribe

and some missionaries
brought 'em over a TV.

For the first couple of weeks,

the whole village
all gathered together,

and they just watched that TV,
and they watched that thing.

And then,
after about a couple of weeks,

they started going back
to the village storyteller.

This is a Taoist story--

story from Asia about the guy
that was chased by the tiger,

and they asked him,
they said,

doesn't a TV know more stories
than your storyteller?

And he said, "Yeah, it does,
but the storyteller knows us."

He was runnin'
for all he was worth.

There was no tree
he could climb--

either the tiger
or the cliff.

He chose the cliff.

He jumped off,
and he caught that vine.

He was hangin'
on that vine.

He looked up,
and he saw that tiger

lookin' over the edge
of that cliff, and he thought,

Ohh, I'm safe from that tiger.

All I have to do
is lower myself down.

He looked
down below.

There was another tiger
pacing back and forth.

He was tryin'
to figure out what to do.

He noticed the vine
was just up outta his reach

stretched tight
over a little ledge.

Up on that ledge,
just up outta his reach,

he saw some movement.

There was a little mouse,
a light-colored mouse.

That mouse
was as light as the day.

That little mouse came up

and started nibblin'
on that vine.

That little mouse went in,
and another mouse came out,

a little mouse,
dark as the night.

That mouse
started chewin'.

That vine
kept gettin' thinner.

The little light mouse
came out;

dark mouse went in.

They kept taking turns,
the light and the dark.

The vine kept getting
thinner and thinner.

He was trying to think,
what do I do?

He looked,
and growing out of that cliff

was a strawberry,
a perfectly ripe strawberry.

He reached out.

He grabbed that strawberry.

He ate that strawberry,
and he enjoyed that strawberry,

and he gave thanks.

And the Taoists say
that's the end of that story,

and that story--
that story's about our life...

♪

about how we're just hangin'
by that little thread of life,

and the main thing
we can be doin'

while that thread
gets thinner

as the day and the night pass

is enjoy our strawberries
and give thanks.

♪

♪

[piano and wood flute enter]

♪

♪

Caption Editors
Will Halman & Kelly Teagle

Caption Perfect, Inc.
www.CaptionPerfect.com

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[strings support
gentle piano melody]

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♪

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