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For three summers in the 1950s, the Roanoke Valley was home to the nation’s only outdoor religious drama.
Courtesy of Salem Historical Society
The cast for “Thy Kingdom Come” portrays a scene in the summer of 1958.
Jim Goodwin was a man of vision. In 1928, he and a friend purchased a tract of land between Roanoke and Salem to create an upscale resort. With a view of the Alleghany Mountains to the west and the Blue Ridge to the east, the men believed they could fashion a retreat that would become a tourist mecca. But there was one problem. The tract did not have an adequate water supply. Undeterred, Goodwin then decided to turn the land into a cemetery, and Sherwood Burial Park came into being.
As Goodwin’s cemetery developed, he still maintained a passion for creating something that would be a commercial and cultural benefit to the Roanoke Valley. So in the early 1940s, Goodwin conceived the building of an amphitheatre within Sherwood. The venue, created to mimic Roman architecture, contained an expansive stage with a multi-column and stone concaved backdrop made of limestone and granite. The terraced seating accommodated 2,000 patrons. Goodwin’s desire was that his amphitheatre would host religious dramas, Easter sunrise services and sacred concerts. In a 1958 interview, Goodwin said, “Because this is a sacred place to so many persons, they would have to be plays or dramas of a religious nature.”
Courtesy of Salem Historical Society
Some of the 100 cast members are seen here during a 1958 performance.
The 1950s was a decade when outdoor dramas were at their zenith. Almost all had themes dealing with American history. Set in mid-sized and even small communities, the plays provided opportunities not just for wholesome entertainment but for attracting visitors and their dollars. The first such tableau was “The Lost Colony at Roanoke Island,” which debuted in 1937. Others quickly followed, such as “The Common Glory” at Williamsburg, “Unto These Hills” in Cherokee, NC, and “Horn in the West” at Boone, NC, among numerous others. The outdoor dramas provided training for aspiring actors and technicians, usually college students, and conveyed narratives on a large-scale with dance, music and spectacle.
Goodwin believed Sherwood’s amphitheatre was the perfect setting for the Roanoke Valley to have an outdoor, symphonic drama of its own. Being true to his conviction that Sherwood was a sacred place, he connected with Kermit Hunter of Hollins College about writing the script for a religious production. Hunter was indeed the right man for the job. Hunter had written the scripts for the very popular “Horn in the West” and “Unto These Hills,” but he had also written numerous other plays, some religious, and would become the nation’s most successful and prolific writer of outdoor dramas. Having arrived at Hollins in 1955 as a drama instructor, Hunter took up the challenge to craft a sweeping religious pageant for Sherwood’s setting, and the end result was an epic based on the life of the Apostle Paul titled “Thy Kingdom Come.”
Want to learn more about "Thy Kingdom Come" and its connection to our region? Check out the latest issue, now on newsstands, or see it for free in our digital guide linked below!
The story above is a preview from our September/October 2023 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!