The first ships to the New World were crowded with men seeking mythical disks of gold, including mercenary coin collectors and record-industry scouts sent to sign West Indie bands. Discover the next big thing with today’s Groupon to the play 1607: First Landing and a tour, presented Thursdays and Saturdays from July 7 to August 27 at the Historic Villages at Cape Henry at Joint Expeditionary Base Fort Story in Virginia Beach. Performances are at 6 p.m., though guests must arrive from 2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. for the tour. Choose from the following options:
• For $5, you get one youth (ages 6–15) ticket (a $10 value).
• For $7, you get one adult ticket (up to a $15 value).
• For $20, you get a family package of four tickets (a $40 value).
The First Landing Foundation allows guests a peek into our country’s emergence, peeling back the coverlets of history with a play about the courtship between early tribes and colonists and a tour of an American Indian village and 17th-century colonial outpost. An outdoor stage hosts panoramic views of the sea to remind audiences of fortune’s tempestuous swells while actors clad in historical garb recreate an unlikely friendship between a young Algonquin warrior and an English colonist. The play’s captivating narrative aims to elucidate the tensions and triumphs that defined our nation’s early years, as well as to preserve the heritage of the cultures which clashed so long ago on nearby shores.
Preceding the roughly 60- to 70-minute performance, a guided tour leads guests down the winding paths of a wooded American Indian village. Docents make their way through lush patches of oak trees as they describe ancient tribal practices such as building canoes, curing meats, and hosting tough-guy tattoo conventions. The tour concludes at a 17th-century colonial outpost complete with a watchtower, a palisade, a church, and a trading post where children once greedily exchanged rare baseball cards.
The U.S. Navy, nor any other part of the federal government, does not officially endorse any company, sponsor or their products or services.
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