THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 6, 1996 TAG: 9610060058
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MARY ELLEN RIDDLE, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: 79 lines
Isolated on a remote shoreline of Dare County, more than 30 miles from the nearest town, Stumpy Point is an unlikely spot for a dinner theater.
Only 210 people live in the low-lying marshland, most of them fishermen or crabbers. The nearest grocery store is a half-hour drive away.
But Carroll Payne, a native of the historic hamlet, wants to start a nonprofit venture for his village. He hopes to renovate a 70-year-old schoolhouse off U.S. Highway 264 on Bayview Drive. This week, he began putting the pieces in place to raise the curtains on his project.
``It's a thing that came to me four years ago in a dream,'' said Payne, a retired salesman who graduated from Stumpy Point School in 1946.
The building has four large rooms; two now serve as a private residence. It also has a 200-seat auditorium, complete with a stage, cafeteria and library. It is perfect, Payne says, for a cultural facility.
The school sits on 3.5 acres of land. Behind it is a large ball field.
The current resident of the building, Linda Barbee, grew up in Stumpy Point. She remembers when the field was alive with ballplayers and visitors hailing from Manns Harbor, Manteo and Hatteras.
Today, Barbee holds dollmaking classes in the schoolhouse. And her students are not just locals. ``People are coming as far as Atlanta and Franklin next Wednesday,'' Barbee said. ``So people come here.''
Payne bases the optimism for his project on the fact that every year people drive through remote swampland in search of his village. ``They come by the hundreds for the fish fry and oyster roast,'' he said. Surely, they'd come for a dinner theater, too.
To make his dream reality, Payne is searching for verbal support from the Dare County community and for potential board members for the theater. He's asked local art, educational and political figures for feedback. So far, it's all been positive, Payne says - except for one relative who jokingly called him nuts.
Some people have given verbal or written support to the idea. And a small contingency, including a representative from the Dare County Arts Council, has agreed to view the site soon. Payne also has spoken with representatives from the East Carolina Regional Development Services Institute, a public service branch of East Carolina University.
In the past, institute officials helped the Stumpy Point community with planning and design work for a shoreline stabilization project. Bill Powell, the institute's associate director for site sevelopment, recently made a trip to Stumpy Point.
``I went down there to look at the facility,'' Powell said Thursday. ``I met with him (Payne) and gave him a few suggestions to get nonprofit status.''
Payne also spoke with Al Delia, associate vice chancellor for egional development, at the institute. ``The concept certainly has worked in other places,'' Delia said. He suggested that Payne identify supply and demand issues, formulate a business plan and set up a corporate structure before the institute takes a closer look. Future help from the institute would include identifying funding sources, Payne said.
``Because of the potential impact of this project to the community and to the region, once the preliminary organizational work is complete, we will provide that service at no cost,'' Delia said Friday.
If a future nonprofit dinner theater group wants further assistance, its members can return to the institute and - for a fee - get help with grant application processes.
Classes at the schoolhouse ceased in the mid-1950s. Until it became a private residence in the early '70s, the structure was a multipurpose facility. ``The building was the center of activity for a long time,'' said Barbee, whose grandfather was the original landowner.
For years, Stumpy Point residents sought shelter from storms in the school, voted in its auditorium and used the building for storage. ``It was just used for what anybody wanted to use it for,'' Payne said. When he heard that the Barbees were interested in relocating, his dream took flight.
``We just feel like we've had such a positive response that the time is just right,'' he said.
Neither Payne nor Barbee are sure how old the schoolhouse is. The steps of the school bear the date 1929. But Payne says they were put in years after the building was built.
No cultural arts facility in Dare County offers both classroom space and an auditorium.
Stumpy Point's school is a long drive from the rest of civilization. But it may be the perfect place for Payne's dream to come true. After all, that's what performing arts are for. by CNB