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Charles Ciceri
(fl. late 18th century), scenic designer.Called “the first full‐fledged scenic artist in America,” he was born in Milan and educated in Paris where he learned drawing. Ciceri came to ...
David Douglass
(?–1786),American actor-manager who in 1758 met and married the widow of the elder Hallam in Jamaica. Amalgamating his actors with hers, he took them back to New York, named ...
Edwin Forrest
(1806–72)The first native-born star of the US stage. Acclaimed for his patriotic heroics, Forrest's acting centred on his muscular build, booming voice, and strenuous realism. His charismatic appeal ...
John Durang
(1768–1822), dancer, acrobat, puppeteer, and actor.He was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, but grew up in York, where he attended the German school attached to Christ Lutheran Church, and in ...
John Edmund Harwood
(1771–1809),American actor. He was for some years at the Chestnut Street Theatre, Philadelphia, under Wignell, and was with the company when it appeared in New York in 1797, being ...
John Henry
(1738–94)Irish actor. Despite a promising debut at Covent Garden in 1762, Henry soon left London for Jamaica where he married Helen Storer and perhaps acted. In 1766 he joined ...
John Hodgkinson
(1767–1805),English actor, who had had some experience in the provinces when in 1792 he accepted an offer from John Henry to join the American Company at the John Street ...
John Street Theatre
Built by David Douglass in 1767, as part of a chain of theatres for the American Company, it was New York's leading playhouse for 30 years. Located near Broadway, it ...
Lewis Hallam, Jr.
(c.1740–1808),son of the above, who went with his father to Williamsburg in 1752 and in 1757 became leading man of the combined companies of his mother and stepfather, going ...
Merry Wives of Windsor
A romantic comedy by Shakespeare printed in a ‘bad’ quarto (1602); the Folio text (1623) is twice as long. The tradition that it was written at the request of Elizabeth I for a play showing Falstaff ...
Much Ado About Nothing
A comedy by Shakespeare, written probably 1598–9, first printed 1600. Its chief sources are a novella by Bandello and an episode in Ariosto's Orlando Furioso.The prince of Arragon, with Claudio and ...
Philadelphia
American centre of furniture production. Before 1700 Philadelphia patronage supported London-trained cabinetmakers, chairmakers, upholsterers and gilders. Walnut-wood, used only as a veneer in London ...
Prince of Parthia
(1767),a tragedy by Thomas Godfrey. [Southwark Theatre (Philadelphia), 1 perf.] Vardanes (Mr. Tomlinson) plots to turn his father, King Artabanus (David Douglass), against his brother Arsaces (Lewis ...
Taming of the Shrew
A comedy by Shakespeare, first printed in the Folio of 1623, probably written c.1592, or earlier, and based in part on the Supposes adapted by G. Gascoigne from Ariosto.The play begins with an ...
Thomas Godfrey
(1736–63),American dramatist, who became the first playwright of the United States when in 1759 he wrote a tragedy entitled The Prince of Parthia which he sent to Douglass, manager ...
Thomas Wall
(fl. mid‐18th century), actor.This performer and sometimes manager first appears in American records when he performed with David Douglass's American Company in Charleston in 1766. He was advertised ...
Williamsburg
A city in SE Virginia, between the James and York Rivers. First settled as Middle Plantation in 1633, it was the state capital of Virginia from 1699, when it was renamed in honour of William III, ...
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