The first appearance by a woman on an English stage was 21st May 1656 or was it?

(HRH Queen Henrietta Maria Stuart 1609-1669, wife of King Charles I)

Those of you who read my blog entries on the history of Theatre will already know that I use a certain book as my source for the 'This day in Theatrical History' posts. That book is 'Who's Who in the Theatre' the 1947 edition, you may also remember me referring to how this means that sometimes its information for said day is incorrect or since its publishing new historical evidence has come to light. It seems that this has happened again as I started my research about the first Female Actor to grace a stage in England and found evidence that I was nearly 30 years off in my information! I should start with what the book claims.

The book claims that on the 21st of May 1656 a Mrs Coleman played a part in Davenants Opera 'Siege of Rhodes' in front of a paying audience at Rutland House. This was in the 1940s believed to be the first performance by a female actor but it is incorrect. Mrs Coleman was one of the first and was without doubt the first in a resurgence of women on the English stage but she was not the first recorded professional performer. Mrs Coleman incidentally did continue her performing career for a while longer in productions of 'Siege of Rhodes' but she was soon replaced by a contemporary named Mary Betterton who was considered much better than her predecessor because unlike Mrs Coleman she was not a 'poor actress'. 

So now knowing that, we must ask ourselves, who were the first female performers on the stage? Now for that we have to thank HRH Queen Henrietta Maria of England, pictured above, who engaged a French company to perform in England in... 1629. Yes in 1629, less than 15 years after the death of Shakespeare, we have the first records of female actors. They were engaged by the Queen to perform at Blackfriars Playhouse and they caused a massive uproar and despite trying their luck at the Fortune Theatre and the Red Bull Theatre they were harried off the stage. At the time it was seen as unthinkable and scandalous to see a Woman on the stage, in a time of rising Puritanism it was in many ways a dangerous step. The Queen was already unpopular for being French and also a Catholic, a factor which helped the Puritans in their quest to execute her husband King Charles I, so her choice of entertainments probably suffered due to her lack of popularity and reputation.

We now know that it was a failure in 1629 but what changed in 25 years? Well people had seen the women at Blackfriars and whilst they had rallied against it before they knew it worked better than watching boys playing girls. By the time the 1650s came around the Puritans were ruling the UK but the backlash against the rules they imposed against entertainment, especially by those who had been part of the Royal Court before the Civil Wars, had begun. Within four years the Monarchy would be back on the throne and the private theatres would be closed as the public ones would soon be reopened. In fact in 1662 the 'Merry Monarch' Charles II would make a decree that all female parts in plays must be played by women. So finally women were allowed on the stage and they had a Royal endorsement. It wasn't over though for equal rights in the theatre as female actors would continue to fight for over 300 years to be treated as respectable members of society for choosing the stage as their trade... but thats a tale for another day.

On this date in 1818 the Old Vic opens and in 1847 George Grossmith is born

In 1818 James King and Daniel Dunn founded the Royal Coburg Theatre in Waterloo, London. The theatre would go on to become the Old Vic. The Royal Coburg was named after Princess Charlotte of Wales and her husband Leopold the 1st of Belgium, who was then called Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, as they were the Royal patrons of the venue. It was not a patent theatre so was unable to show serious drama, although in 1824 Edmund Kean played six Shakespeare plays in six nights, but gained further patronage from the Royals with Queen Victoria's mother the Duchess of Kent taking her to see an operetta at the Theatre before she ascended the throne. During the 20th century the theatre went from strength to strength, first under the management of Lilian Bayliss and then during the war with stars Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier. The Old Vic company became the pinnacle of theatrical excellence in the UK and in 1963 was turned into the National Theatre company under Olivier. The National Theatre remained at The Old Vic until the new building was opened on the South Bank in 1974. Currently the artistic director of the Old Vic is Kevin Spacey. The Old Vic continues to go from strength to strength nearly 200 years from its opening. Today the Old Vic legacy goes across two more venues, the recently opened Old Vic tunnels and the Bristol Old Vic (an offshoot of the original).

On the 11th of May 1847 George Grossmith was born. Grossmith lived in Islington as a child with his mother and father, who was a journalist, and his two siblings Emily and Weedon. George's career began around 1864 when he started premiering skits and songs at private parties. Soon he was doing a music hall act touring different parts of the country writing his own sketches and working either on his own or with his father. It was during his time of touring his comedy sketches that Gilbert and Sullivan had been impressed by him. Having seen him perform the two theatrical impresarios invited him to play the lead in their production 'The Sorcerer' despite the apprehensions of their backers. However Grossmith was an enormous success in the role and went on to create nine back to back lead roles for D'Oyly Carte and Gilbert and Sullivan. In 1889 Grossmith parted ways with Gilbert and Sullivan to resume his piano playing tours which were, despite his immense popularity, more financially rewarding than his theatre work. In 1892 with his aforementioned brother Weedon he wrote the satirical novel, first published in editions of Punch magazine, 'The Diary of a Nobody' which still stands today as a great classic of Victorian literature. Grossmith died at the age of 64 in Folkestone. His legacy lives on as his style impacted hugely on the songs he was given to sing by Gilbert and Sullivan and the songs he is famous for singing are the centrepieces of many of the writers operettas. Sadly even though Grossmith was alive during the time of wax cylinders and early recording equipment, there are no known recordings of his voice.

May the 10th 1849 the Astor Place Riot happens in New York New York

The year is 1849 and in New York City a new star is taking back the American stage from the European Actor/Managers who run the American Theatre. The new star was Edwin Forrest who had dragged himself up from a poor background in Philadelphia to tour internationally as an actor of great note. He had the great luck to be carving out a niche for himself with the support of many American writers who promoted him as superior to all the British stars treading the USA's boards. At the time of the riots Forrest was friends with William Macready who was touring the USA with his company in a production of 'Macbeth'. Forrest's friends in the media who were catching the current anti-british zeitgeist started promoting a 'Who is the better actor?' discussion. The columns of American papers were filled with pro-Forrest articles and denigrated Macready which led to public statements being made by each performer against the other. Macready was representing the upper classes of the New York elite who were known to be anglophiles, whereas Forrest was from the gutter. He had begun his New York career at the Bowery Theatre, where the manager was known to try out unknown American playwrights, plays and performers, which fed into the Pro-America sentiments of the day. The two men could not have come from two more different worlds and when the tensions that had been bubbling under the surface came to boiling point a political aspect was truly on show. Macready was engaged to perform as Macbeth at the Astor Place Theatre, a theatre where not all social classes were welcome, so Forrest played Macbeth at the Bowery. It was clear that this was now about the rich versus the poor. After fans and supporters of Forrest crashed a performance at the Astor and heckled Macready off the stage it became obvious something would happen. Macready made ready to leave America but having been convinced to stay and complete his tour by notable New Yorkers, the stage was set. Politicians from Tammany Hall went around on the 10th of May with flyers asking the question 'Shall Americans or English rule this city?' and contained information on where to congregate to protest against the English influence. By the evening of the 10th 10,000 people had congregated in Astor Place, bad feelings were rife, a mob started hurling stones at the Astor Theatre and later when the violence and disruption increased the city militia was called out. They soon stopped firing just into the air and started firing into the crowd. At the end of the riot 25 were dead and over 120 were injured. It remains to this day one of the darkest days in the history of the American Theatre.

7/5/1663 Charles the II is on the throne so lets party and open the Drury Lane Theatre!

Three years after the Restoration which gave King Charles II his throne and the Puritans, who had shut down all the theatres, were removed from their positions of power, the Theatre Royal, Bridges Street, was built. It was not until later that it would be known as Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. It was 1663 and London was at the height of its post Puritan debauchery, the banned plays were popular again and the King himself commanded performances to be put on to the delight of people all over the capital. The era gave us the still popular Restoration comedy genre which is typified by their bawdy and sexual content. The first production shown at the theatre was 'The Humorous Luietenant' by John Fletcher, a play that was debuted less than 50 years before by the last of Shakespeare's theatre company. The great diarist Samuel Pepys wrote a review of both the theatre and the production from the opening night, you can find the diary year 1663 on this page here, and was critical of the building. The building survived the Great Fire of 1666 but the previous year had been shut down due to an outbreak of the plague. After surviving the fire the theatre thrived once again until it burned down in 1672. Its replacement, the second Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, was built in 1674 and would remain for another 120 years.

On this date in 1680 Susanna Centlivre aka Susanna Carroll was born. Carroll is known to have been a contemporary of Aphra Behn and only a step behind her as the 'Second Woman of the English Stage.' It is believed that Carroll joined the Drury Lane Theatre in 1700 and in that first year the theatre produced her play 'The Perjur'd Husband' which was a risque tragedy. It was a hit which made her reputation as both a writer and an actor. Carroll wrote 19 plays and numerous poems and pressed through her writing the need for equality between men and women. She died in 1723 from a prolonged illness, she is buried in The Actors' Church, Covent Garden, London.