Outer Banks Veterans Week to celebrate with special events

October 27, 2022 Submitted
Morgan Creek Bluegrass Band. [Courtesy Morgan Creek Bluegrass Band]

A writing workshop, two concerts, a staged play reading, along with numerous ceremonies and special events will be taking place during Outer Banks Veterans Week, which will run November 4-13.

Veteran, writer, playwright and educator Ron Capps, who is the founder and director of the Veterans Writing Project. Photo courtesy of Veterans Writing Project.

Outer Banks Veterans Week kicks off on Friday, November 4th at 6pm with a free performance by country/rock band Brothers Carolina during First Friday at Dare Arts in downtown Manteo.

Abrams Bridge, a Bruce Springsteen tribute band from Richmond, VA, will headline the Outer Banks Veterans Day Concert, which will be held in the backyard at Jack Browns Beer & Burger Joint on Friday, November 11 from 5pm to 10pm. Chapel Hill, NC band Morgan Creek Bluegrass and Outer Banks rock/reggae musician Jonny Waters will be opening the Outer Banks Veterans Concert, which is free, family-friendly and open to everyone.

“Outer Banks Veterans Week is just as much about the people as the process,” said musician, Veteran and Dare Arts Board Member Jonny Waters. “People uniting for the sake of Veterans. The sense of community that this event supports and propagates is the most beneficial.”

The 10th Annual Outer Banks Veterans Writing Workshop will be held at the UNC Coastal Studies Institute in Wanchese on Saturday, November 12 and Sunday, November 13.

Abrams Bridge Band. [Courtesy Abrams Bridge]
Veteran, writer, playwright and educator Ron Capps, who is the founder and director of the Veterans Writing Project, will lead this year’s Veterans Writing Workshop, titled Scene Writing For Stage & Screen.

“This is my tenth year working with Dare Arts to bring Veteran writing workshops to the Outer Banks,” said Ron Capps. “Since this year’s workshop focuses on stage and screen, we decided to take the opportunity to do a staged reading to show the participants how collaborative work like play and screenwriting evolve differently from more solitary, individual works like memoir or fiction. It’s sort of a wonderful serendipity because Dare Arts’ Executive Director Jessica Sands is a theater director, too.”

Country/rock band Brothers Carolina. [Courtesy Brothers Carolina]
The free staged reading of a play-in-progress titled Trying To Catch Amnesia by Ron Capps is open to the public and will be held at Theatre of Dare in Kitty Hawk on Saturday, November 12 at 7pm.

“Trying To Catch Amnesia is a play about war and coming home and how those things don’t always go perfectly,” added Capps. “It includes seven songs, but it’s not strictly a musical in the tradition of American Musical Theater. The songs do tell part of the story, but rather than standard theatrical forms, they are more in the style of the country, rock, or pop songs that might inhabit the lives of the characters.”

Outside of these cornerstone events, there will be ceremonies, specials and discounts from Corolla to Cape Hatteras for Veterans during Outer Banks Veterans Week, which can be found online at DareArts.org/veteransdirectory in the free Outer Banks Veterans Directory.

Businesses, organizations and groups wanting to have their Veteran events listed in the directory should email Dare Arts Program Director Michelle Alexander at DareArtsPrograms@gmail.com.

Outer Banks rock/reggae musician and Veteran Jonny Waters. [Courtesy of Jonny Waters]
Outer Banks Veterans Week is an annual event celebrating Veterans and their families through the arts. The purpose of the program is to showcase the Outer Banks as a welcoming destination for Veterans, active-duty military and their families, through special events, concerts, and ceremonies.

Thank you to Jane Webster, Stan White Realty & Construction, Jack Browns Beer & Burger Joint, Outer Banks Woman’s Club, The Coastal Studies Institute, Theatre of Dare, and The Roanoke Island Inn for sponsoring Outer Banks Veterans Week.

This project is supported by the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural & Cultural Resources.

This project is sponsored by the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau.

For more information about Outer Banks Veterans Week, visit DareArts.org/veterans or call 252 473 5558.

Dare Arts is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts organization dedicated to encouraging the arts in Dare County through advocacy, enrichment and opportunity.

The Veterans Writing Project is a 501(c)(3) that provides no-cost creative writing and songwriting workshops across the country.

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