The two companies, French and English, merged during the spring, offering several benefit performances, with proceeds going to the various performers or to charitable causes such as "the orphans of Charleston." Through the summer of 1796, the merged company kept the Church Street theater open under the name of "City Theatre," while the Broad Street house remained dark.īeginning in 1799, performers who stayed in Charleston through the summer, and those who had made the city their permanent residence, found employment at Alexander Placide's Vauxhall Gardens.
West and Bignall's Charleston Theater was effectively out of business at the end of the 1795-96 season. While the wealthy elite patronized Shakespearian productions on Broad Street, supporters of the Jacobin revolutionaries flocked to the comedies, acrobatics, and light opera presented at the French Theater. Competition between the two theaters was fierce, and heightened by conflicting political alliances after France declared war on Great Britain in February 1793. The French Theatre's inaugural performance, April 21, 1794, featured a comedy, "Harlequin Robbed," singing, and tightrope dancing, all starring Alexander Placide and his so-called wife, Suzanne Théodore Vaillande. Soon after the Broad Street Theatre opened, Santo Domingan refugee John Sollée built a French-language theater on Church Street. Winter for well-off Charlestonians included a busy round of theatre, musical concerts, and subscription balls. On opening night, January 15, 1794, they presented a double bill: "The Tragedy of the Earl of Essex" and a comic opera "The Farmer, or The World's Ups and Downs." This illustrious company joined the previous year's returning performers. West from the Bath theatre and the "three Mr. Henderson, late of the Liverpool theatre Mr. Clifford, the "celebrated singer from Vauxhall " Mr.
In November, 1793, the City Gazette reported that the theater had been upgraded in anticipation of a new season, and that a "number of capital performers" from England had arrived in Virginia aboard the ships Union and Eliza. Most of the performers, fearing Charleston's deadly fevers, moved north again before summer. Cecilia Society, the schedules of that concert series and the theatre were carefully coordinated. Because the players in the thirteen-piece orchestra also served the St. West and Bignall's 1,200-seat theater opened in February 1793, midway through the social season, presenting dramas that included both dancing and music by actors and musicians recruited from northern cities. The front will be on Broad Street, and the pit entrance on Middleton Street. …125 feet in length, the width 56 feet, the height 37 feet, with a handsome pediment, stone ornaments, a large flight of stone steps, and a courtyard palisaded. On August 14, 1792, the City Gazette reported "the ground was laid off for the new theatre, on Savage's Green. Designed by James Hoban (best known as the architect of the White House in Washington), the masonry playhouse was built by contractor Capt. In 1792, Thomas Wade West and John Bignall, managers of the Virginia Company of Comedians, announced plans for a new theater in Charleston.
"Medical College of the State of South Carolina," 1832.
Broad Street Theater (1793) Medical College (1833)Ĭourtesy of the Waring Historical Library, MUSC, Charleston, S.C. Our DIRECTOR’S CIRCLE membership includes four (4) regular season memberships (4 tickets per production) along with six (6) guest passes to use throughout the season as well as special invites to a private dress rehearsal each season and more.23. There are two levels of Queen’s Court Memberships: * Reserved seating marked with the Queen’s Court banner * Recognition in the program and at opening night performance * Queen’s Court Member emblem to wear for the evening * Private check-in and ticket pick up at the ClubRoom reception Meet the director and creative team of each production while enjoying drinks and light appetizers in the intimate ClubRoom at the beautiful Loutrel Hotel just one block away from the theatre. Member’s of this exclusive theatre lover’s group attend our opening night performances our all six of our MainStage productions. Enhance your Queen Street Playhouse theatre experience by joining our Queen’s Court subscriber level.
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