#OTD in 1856.
British actress Laura Keene opens her own theatre in New York City. She is most famous for being the lead actress in the play Our American Cousin, which was attended by President Abraham Lincoln on the evening of his assassination.
theatre
#OTD in 1906.
Frank Wedekind's play Spring Awakening: A Children's Tragedy (Frühlings Erwachen), completed 1901, receives its first staging, directed by Max Reinhardt.
The Awakening of Spring at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/35242
#OTD in 1902.
J. M. Barrie's comedy The Admirable Crichton is first performed, at the Duke of York's Theatre in London, starring H. B. Irving, Henry Kemble and Irene Vanbrugh.
#OTD in 1900.
August Strindberg's To Damascus (Till Damaskus, first two parts) receives its première at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm with August Palme and Harriet Bosse, Strindberg's future wife, in the leading rôles.
#OTD in 1878.
Henry Irving's production of Hamlet, with himself in the title rôle playing opposite Ellen Terry as Ophelia, opens at the Lyceum Theatre, London (of which they have taken over the management). The tendency of actor-managers to emphasise the importance of their own central character did not always meet with the critics' approval.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlet
Hamlet at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/1524
#OTD in 1845.
The American actress Charlotte Cushman plays Romeo to her sister Susan's Juliet in a production of Romeo and Juliet at the Haymarket Theatre in London.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_Cushman
Romeo and Juliet at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/1513
#OTD in 1891.
Maurice Maeterlinck's play The Blind (written in 1890) is premièred. Les Aveugles is, along with L'Intruse, one of Maurice Maeterlinck's first two plays.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blind_(play)
Les Aveugles is available at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/48368
Out today from me, at @TexasObserver: The creators of "Young Greg Abbott: A FuQusical" hope to take their show on the road, inspiring anger, laughter, and political change while undermining the governor's career through satire. "We want to be in his ear, as this very annoying little pesky punk show following him around."
https://www.texasobserver.org/young-greg-abbott-musical/
#culture #GregAbbott #politics #USpol #Texas #weird #Austin #theatre
#OTD in 1899.
William Gillette's play Sherlock Holmes, based (with authorisation) on the writings of Arthur Conan Doyle, opens in New York City with himself in the title rôle.
#OTD in 1871.
First performance of The Bells starring Henry Irving at the Lyceum Theatre, London. The Bells is a translation by Leopold Lewis of the 1867 play Le Juif polonais by Erckmann-Chatrian.
#OTD in 1952.
Agatha Christie's murder-mystery play The Mousetrap opens at the Ambassadors Theatre in London's West End after a premiere in Nottingham, UK. It will become the longest continuously running play in history.
#OTD in 1919.
The Großes Schauspielhaus opens as a theater in Berlin, with an interior designed by Hans Poelzig. It begins with the director Max Reinhardt's production of the Oresteia.
The House of Atreus at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8604
#OTD in 1899.
Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, a reworking of his The Wood Demon (1889), receives its Russian metropolitan première at the Moscow Art Theatre.
"A good man with a good conscience doesn’t walk so fast."
#OTD in 1913.
Georg Büchner's play Woyzeck, unfinished on his death in 1837, receives its first performance at the Residenztheater, Munich.
Woyzeck at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/5322
#OTD in 1906.
Max Reinhardt inaugurates the Kammerspiele series of new plays at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin, with a production of Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen, designed by Edvard Munch.
Ghosts at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8121
#OTD in 1892.
George Bernard Shaw's first play Widowers' Houses has its first performance, at the Royalty Theatre in London under the auspices of the Independent Theatre Society. The author is booed.
This is one of three plays Shaw published as Plays Unpleasant in 1898. The other plays in the group are The Philanderer and Mrs. Warren's Profession.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widowers%27_Houses
Books by Bernard Shaw at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/467
#OTD in 1898.
Moscow Art Theatre's first season opens with a double bill of Emilia Matthai's Greta's Happiness and Carlo Goldoni's The Mistress of the Inn. The successful and influential Moscow Art Theatre production of The Seagull by Chekhov (its Moscow première), would open on 29 December 1898.
#OTD in 1896.
Alfred Jarry's play Ubu Roi (first published this Spring in Le Livre d'art) is premièred by the Théâtre de l'Œuvre in Paris. The opening word, "Merdre!", triggers disturbances and the play is not performed again in the author's lifetime.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubu_Roi
Ubu Roi at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/16884
#OTD in 1902.
Maxim Gorky's drama The Lower Depths – Scenes from Russian Life is first performed, at the Moscow Art Theatre, as a first major success for Konstantin Stanislavsky as director and star. It became his first major success, and a hallmark of Russian social realism.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lower_Depths
The Lower Depths at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/52468
#OTD in 1912.
Konstantin Stanislavski and Edward Gordon Craig's seminal symbolist Moscow Art Theater production of Hamlet opens.
The most famous aspect of the production is Craig's use of a single, plain set that varied from scene to scene by means of large, abstract screens that altered the size and shape of the acting area.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_Art_Theatre_production_of_Hamlet
Hamlet at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1524
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/27761
#OTD in 1905.
Baroness Emma Orczy's play The Scarlet Pimpernel, adapted by Julia Neilson and Fred Terry, who play the leads, makes its London debut at the New Theatre, followed shortly by publication of the novel.
Published after the success of the play, the novel was an immediate success, gaining Orczy a following of readers in Britain and the rest of the world.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scarlet_Pimpernel
The Scarlet Pimpernel at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/60
#OTD in 1895.
The première of Henry James's historical drama Guy Domville held at St James's Theatre in London is booed. This failure largely marked the end of James's attempt to conquer the theatre.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Domville
Guy Domville (published in 1960) is available at @internetarchive
https://archive.org/details/guydomvilleplayi00jame
"Nothing is stranger to man than his own image."
#OTD in 1921.
World premiere of the science fiction play R.U.R. (Rossumovi Univerzální Roboti) by the Czech writer Karel Čapek in a theater in Hradec Králové. It introduced the word "robot" to the English language and to science fiction as a whole.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R.U.R.
R.U.R. at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/59112
Edited 186d ago
#OTD in 1895.
The première of Oscar Wilde's comedy An Ideal Husband takes place at the Haymarket Theatre in London. In April, on the last day of the Haymarket run, Wilde was arrested for gross indecency; his name was removed from the playbills and programmes when the production transferred to the Criterion Theatre, where it ran for a further 13 performances, from 13 to 27 April.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Ideal_Husband
An Ideal Husband at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/885
#OTD in 1892.
Brandon Thomas' farce Charley's Aunt begins a record-breaking London run at the Royalty Theatre (following a pre-London opening at Bury St Edmunds on February 29).
The play was an immediate success, opening to enthusiastic audiences & excellent notices from the press. It ran for a record-breaking 1,466 performances across four years, closing on 19 December 1896.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charley%27s_Aunt
Charley's Aunt is available at LibriVox
https://librivox.org/charleys-aunt-by-brandon-thomas/
