Cross and Sword is a 1965 play

Play (theatre)

A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...

 by American playwright Paul Green. It is Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

's official state play, having received the designation by the Florida Senate

Florida Senate

The Florida Senate is the upper house of the Florida Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Florida. The Senate is composed of 40 members representing an equal number of districts, with each district having an average population of 470,032....

 in 1973. It was performed during the summer in St. Augustine

St. Augustine, Florida

St. Augustine is a city in the northeast section of Florida and the county seat of St. Johns County, Florida, United States. Founded in 1565 by Spanish explorer and admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, it is the oldest continuously occupied European-established city and port in the continental United...

 for more than 30 years, closing in 1996.

Beginning

The Pulitzer Prize

Pulitzer Prize

The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...

-winning playwright Paul Green created a play in 1937 about Walter Raleigh

Walter Raleigh

Sir Walter Raleigh was an English aristocrat, writer, poet, soldier, courtier, spy, and explorer. He is also well known for popularising tobacco in England....

's Roanoke Colony

Roanoke Colony

The Roanoke Colony on Roanoke Island in Dare County, present-day North Carolina, United States was a late 16th-century attempt to establish a permanent English settlement in what later became the Virginia Colony. The enterprise was financed and organized by Sir Walter Raleigh and carried out by...

 entitled Lost Colony

Lost Colony (play)

The Lost Colony is a historical play by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paul Green about Roanoke, the first English colony in North America. The play is based on the historical accounts of Sir Walter Raleigh's failed attempts to establish a permanent settlement in the 1580s in part of what was...

. It was written as a "symphonic drama", blending music, dance, pantomime

Pantomime

Pantomime — not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the...

 and poetic dialogue into a larger-than-life historical play. In 1965 Green was commissioned to write a play commemorating the 400th anniversary of the founding of St. Augustine.
The play was to be performed at the newly constructed, 2,000 seat St. Augustine Amphitheatre

St. Augustine Amphitheatre

The St. Augustine Amphitheatre is a venue for outdoor concerts and other large gatherings on A1A in St Augustine, Florida, United States. The Amphitheatre seats 3,493 persons, and is managed by the St. Johns County Parks & Recreation department.-History:...

. The result was Cross and Sword: A Symphonic Drama of the Spanish Settlement of Florida. The play is a musical reenactment depicting Florida's early history at St. Augustine, especially its colonization by Spaniard Pedro Menéndez de Avilés

Pedro Menéndez de Avilés

Pedro Menéndez de Avilés was a Spanish admiral and explorer, best remembered for founding St. Augustine, Florida in 1565. This was the first successful Spanish foothold in La Florida and remained the most significant city in the region for several hundred years. St...

 and his settlers' bloody conflicts with French Huguenot

Huguenot

The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...

s at Fort Caroline

Fort Caroline

Fort Caroline was the first French colony in the present-day United States. Established in what is now Jacksonville, Florida, on June 22, 1564, under the leadership of René Goulaine de Laudonnière, it was intended as a refuge for the Huguenots. It lasted one year before being obliterated by the...

 in present day Jacksonville

Jacksonville, Florida

Jacksonville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Florida in terms of both population and land area, and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. It is the county seat of Duval County, with which the city government consolidated in 1968...

.

Professional interest

Actor Richard Boone

Richard Boone

Richard Allen Boone was an American actor who starred in over 50 films and was notable for his roles in Westerns and for starring in the TV series Have Gun – Will Travel.-Early life:...

 moved to St. Augustine from Hawaii in 1970, and worked with the production when he was not acting on television or in movies, until his death in 1981. In the last year of his life, Boone was appointed Florida's cultural ambassador. During the 1970s, he wrote a newspaper column for the St. Augustine Record called, "It Seems To Me". He also gave acting lectures at Flagler College

Flagler College

Flagler College, is a private four-year liberal arts college in St. Augustine, Florida, USA and celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2008.The college has been named in recent years by US News & World Report as one of the southeast region's best comprehensive liberal arts colleges, and is included on...

 in 1972-1973.

End

Production for Cross and Sword, with its large cast and elaborate costumes and props, was expensive. For many years, costs were partially subsidized by the state. However, changes to state rules led to a decrease in funding, while St. Augustine's decline as a tourist destination in the last part of the 20th century led to lower ticket sales. Faced with a decreased budget and an aging theater in need of renovation, Cross and Sword lobbied for $27,000 from the state Division of Cultural Affairs in 1997, but the proposal was rejected. After the 1996 season, the production closed its doors. In 2002, St. Johns County

St. Johns County, Florida

St. Johns County is a county located in northeastern Florida. As of the 2010 census, the population was 190,039. The county seat is St. Augustine. Due to the inclusion of Ponte Vedra Beach, it is one of the highest-income counties in the United States....

acquired and renovated the amphitheater, turning it into a concert venue.