Moores Creek National Battlefield in Pender County, NC
The battlefield will commemorate its 250th anniversary in February 2026.
When it comes to celebrating the 250th birthday of the United States of America with thematically appropriate art or entertainment, you won’t find many things better suited to the occasion than “1776.”
The behind-the-scenes musical about the creation of the Declaration of Independence, and featuring such founding fathers as John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, is being staged in venues all over the country this year in the lead-up to July 4, and Wilmington is no exception.
From March 13-15, Wilmington’s Thalian Association Community Theater — which dates its founding to 1788, just 12 years after the USA was born — is bringing “1776” to the main stage of Thalian Hall downtown.
“I was reading the script for the millionth time, and the themes are pretty similar to what we’re discussing today,” said the show’s director, Chandler Davis, who’s also the artistic director of the Thalian Association. “I think the same kinds of back-and-forth conversations are happening.”
Of course, the Thalians aren’t the only ones planning America-250-themed entertainment this year. Plenty of other Wilmington groups are getting into the act, in the process exploring how the arts have helped shape what we know about our country’s founding and its history, in Wilmington and beyond.
Two of the biggest celebrations in the area are the N.C. First in Freedom Festival, which has events throughout Southeastern N.C. from Feb. 21-28, and the N.C. Fourth of July Festival, which takes place in Southport and Oak Island June 28-July 4. The latter kicks off June 28 in Southport’s Franklin Square Park with the We The People Gospel Fest.
At least two Wilmington-area groups got America250 grants through the North Carolina Arts Council for help with organizing events associated with the country’s 250th birthday.
Cameron Art Museum Director Heather Wilson said the museum used its America250 grant for educational purposes tied to programs in U.S. Colored Troops Park. The park is anchored by Stephen Hayes’ sculpture “Boundless,” which depicts Black soldiers who fought for the United States against the Confederacy.
In June, the museum opens “Rooted in Memory: The Gullah Geechee Vision of Jonathan Green,” which explores the history and experience of the Gullah Geechee people, who were kidnapped from the west coast of Africa, enslaved and brought to the United States. Many of these people were in Southeastern N.C. by the late 1700s, working on rice plantations on Eagles Island and elsewhere.
Liz Scanlon, executive director of the Wilmington Symphony Orchestra (WSO), said they are using their America250 grant for youth education and to help stage their annual Fourth of July symphony pops concert at Live Oak Bank Pavilion, which features patriotic musical favorites.
The WSO is also presenting “Celebrating Music Through 250 Years and Beyond,” a free lecture on March 31 at Beckwith Recital Hall by University of North Carolina Wilmington music professor Dr. Helena Kopchick Spencer. The lecture will explore everything from 18th century fife and drum bands to beach music.
Going back to the 18th century, “A lot of the fife and drum bands were very prevalent in North Carolina,” Scanlon said. “We’re looking at all 25 decades of music in North Carolina, how it influenced where we live and how it shaped our state.”
Wilmington artist James Horton often explores history in his work, including paintings of Colonial Wilmington, Colonial Brunswick Town and the Revolutionary War Battle of Moores Creek Bridge in Pender County, which marks its 250th anniversary Feb. 27. These and other paintings are featured in Horton’s “Legends & Landmarks” exhibit that hangs through April 26 at the Bellamy Mansion Museum in Wilmington.
“I try to visualize what once was and how it relates to present-day places,” Horton said. “I try to be historically accurate. … It is my goal that people will become interested in the subjects that they see and will want to learn more.”
Probably the best-known depiction of Southeastern North Carolina’s history from the late 1700s is in “Outlander,” the best-selling book-series-turned-TV-show by Diana Gabaldon.
Past episodes have focused on historical events in the Wilmington area and in North Carolina. Fans of show, who are usually history fans as well, often find their way to Wilmington’s Burgwin-Wright House and Gardens, which dates to the 18th century and whose assistant director, Hunter Ingram, has called the Burgwin-Wright “the place to come to talk about America’s 250th in Wilmington.”
Ingram also produces a history podcast, “Outlander on the Cape Fear,” for the Burgwin-Wright.
As for the Thalian Association’s production of “1776,” which it’s co-producing with Thalian Hall Center for the Performing Arts, director Davis said she’s setting it in the present day to highlight the show’s continued relevance.
“I was really interested in setting it in 2026, which I’m not the first to do,” she said.
Doing a “modern” version of the show largely means using contemporary costumes, like business suits, while the show’s set will evoke the U.S. Senate chambers, even though the Senate didn’t exist in 1776.
Most of the show is being kept the same, including the original pronouns, despite the fact that a woman, Susie Lukens, is playing the show’s main antagonist, John Dickinson, who argues with John Adams (played by Carson Sikorski) against many of the provisions that made it into the Declaration of Independence.
“There are flash points in American history. The story we tell about the Declaration of Independence, if you don’t see ‘1776’ you might never know that there was that much opposition to it,” Lukens said. “We don’t have to test our how our system works very often. … We’re in a moment where our system is being tested, (and) we’re seeing people trying to be like, ‘No, we don’t have to follow the rules.'”
“It’s easy to just be like, ‘America sucks right now,” Davis said. “But as a queer woman of color, I’m having a way easier time here (than she might in some other places). It’s like, instead of just giving up, fight for the future.”
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