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Surrey Theatre
The Surrey Theatre, London began life in 1782 as the Royal Circus and Equestrian Philharmonic Academy, one of the many circuses that provided entertainment of both horsemanship and drama (hippodrama). It stood in Blackfriars Road, near the junction with Westminster Bridge Road, just south of the River Thames in what is now the London Borough of Southwark. History The ''Royal Circus'' was opened on 4 November 1782 by the composer and song writer, Charles Dibdin (who coined the term "circus" for that usage), aided by Charles Hughes, a well-known equestrian performer. The entertainments were at first performed by children with the goal of its being a nursery for young actors. Delphini, a celebrated buffo, became manager in 1788 and produced a spectacle including a real stag-hunt. Other animal acts followed, including the popular dog act ''Gelert and Victor'', lecture pieces, pantomimes and local spectacles. The popular comedian John Palmer then managed the theatre until 1789 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blackfriars Road
Blackfriars Road is a road in Southwark, SE1. It runs between St George's Circus at the southern end and Blackfriars Bridge over the River Thames at the northern end, leading to the City of London. Halfway up on the west side is Southwark Underground station, on the corner with The Cut. Opposite is Palestra, a large new office building which houses the Surface transport division of Transport for London, which was formerly the headquarters of the London Development Agency. The road forms part of the A201. The road adjoins Stamford Street and Southwark Street at the northern end. Originally known as Surrey Street, the road was built in the 1760s as the south approach to Blackfriars Bridge, and was laid out by the bridge surveyor, Robert Mylne.Ward, Robert (2007) ''The Man Who Buried Nelson: The Surprising Life of Robert Mylne''. London: Tempus Publishing. . p.76 From 2010 a number of major development schemes have transformed Blackfriars Road from the bridge to the south a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Macbeth
''Macbeth'' (, full title ''The Tragedie of Macbeth'') is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. It is thought to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those who seek power. Of all the plays that Shakespeare wrote during the reign of James I, ''Macbeth'' most clearly reflects his relationship with King James, patron of Shakespeare's acting company. It was first published in the Folio of 1623, possibly from a prompt book, and is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy. A brave Scottish general named Macbeth receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders King Duncan and takes the Scottish throne for himself. He is then wracked with guilt and paranoia. Forced to commit more and more murders to protect himself from enmity and suspicion, he soon becomes a tyrannical ruler. The bloodbath and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era.. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime and, by the 20th century, critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories are widely read today. Born in Portsmouth, Dickens left school at the age of 12 to work in a boot-blacking factory when John Dickens, his father was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. After three years he returned to school, before he began his literary career as a journalist. Dickens edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed Penny reading, readings extensively, was an indefatigable letter writer, and campaigned vigorously for children's rights, for educatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward Fitzball
Edward Fitzball (20 March 179327 October 1873) was a popular English playwright, who specialised in melodrama. His real surname was Ball, and he was born at Burwell, Cambridgeshire. Fitzball was educated in Newmarket, was apprenticed to a Norwich printer in 1809. He produced some dramatic pieces at the local theatre, and eventually the marked success of his ''Innkeeper of Abbeville, or The Ostler and the Robber'' (1820), together with the friendly acceptance of one of his pieces at the Surrey Theatre by Thomas John Dibdin, induced him to settle in London. During the next twenty-five years, he produced a great number of plays, most of which were successful. He had a special talent for nautical drama. His ''Floating Beacon'' (Surrey Theatre, 19 April 1824) ran for 140 nights, and his ''Pilot'' (Adelphi, 1825) for 200 nights. He also produced a seminal play on ''The Flying Dutchman'' and wrote the libretto for Edward Loder's ''Raymond and Agnes''. His greatest triumph in melodram ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black-Eyed Susan
''Black-Eyed Susan; or, All in the Downs'' is a comic play in three acts by Douglas Jerrold. The story concerns a heroic sailor, William, who has been away from England for three years fighting in the Napoleonic Wars. Meanwhile, his wife, Susan, has fallen on hard times and is being harassed by her crooked landlord uncle. A smuggler named Hatchet offers to pay her debts because he wants her for himself; he tries to persuade her that William is dead. Soon after William returns to solve this problem, his drunken, dastardly captain tries to seduce Susan. William, not recognising his captain from behind, strikes him with his cutlass. He is court-martialled for attacking a senior officer and sentenced to be hanged. But it turns out that he had been discharged from the navy before he struck his captain, so all ends well. Much of the humour in the piece centers on the sailor's nautical dialect, combined with his noble character. The play is a nautical melodrama (with all its stock char ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Douglas William Jerrold
Douglas William Jerrold (London 3 January 18038 June 1857 London) was an English dramatist and writer. Biography Jerrold's father, Samuel Jerrold, was an actor and lessee of the little theatre of Wilsby near Cranbrook in Kent. In 1807 Douglas moved to Sheerness, where he spent his childhood. He occasionally took a child part on the stage, but his father's profession held little attraction for him. In December 1813 he joined the guardship ''Namur'', where he had Jane Austen's brother Charles Austen as captain, and served as a midshipman until the peace of 1815. He saw nothing of the war save a number of wounded soldiers from Waterloo, but he retained an affection for the sea. The peace of 1815 ruined Jerrold's father; on 1 January 1816 he took his family to London, where Douglas began work as a printer's apprentice, and in 1819 he became a compositor in the printing-office of the ''Sunday Monitor''. Several short papers and copies of verses by him had already appeared in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Holland (actor)
George Holland (1791–1870) was an English American stage actor, born in London, 6 December 1791. Early life His father was a tradesman. As a boy he was first sent to preparatory schools in Lambeth, and afterward to a boarding-school. He did not prove a devoted student; he was more remarkable for his pranks than for his proficiency in learning. Because of this Holland was taken home by his father and set to work in the silk and ribbon warehouse of Messrs. Hill & Newcombe, on Wood Street, in Cheapside, London. Prior to beginning to work, though, he had a six weeks long vacation during which he had his first experience on the stage at Astley's Amphitheatre. He was delighted by the activities that he experienced. His work with the silk mercers passed six months, selling silk and ribbons and "silk" hats, the latter articles having then only just come into fashion. Other ventures passed by, and at the age of nineteen George was apprenticed to Mr. Thomas Davison, of Whitefr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Fortunes Of Nigel
''The Fortunes of Nigel'' (1822) is one of the Waverley novels by Sir Walter Scott. Set in London in either 1623 or 1624, it centres on the Scottish community there after the Union of the Crowns and features James VI and I . Composition and sources On 30 September 1821 Scott indicated to his publisher Archibald Constable that '' The Pirate'' (which he would complete the following month) would be followed by a tale of the time of James VI and I. He began composition immediately ''The Pirate'' was finished. The first volume was complete before the end of the year; by the end of January 1822 Scott was halfway through the second volume; there were delays, in part because he devoted a considerable amount of time to the Introductory Epistle, but the work was brought to a conclusion in early May. Scott's main sources for ''The Fortunes of Nigel'' were Jacobean dramas and other imaginative literature of the period, but he was also well acquainted with other contemporaneous publications a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Baldwin Buckstone
John Baldwin Buckstone (14 September 1802 – 31 October 1879) was an English actor, playwright and comedian who wrote 150 plays, the first of which was produced in 1826. He starred as a comic actor during much of his career for various periods at the Adelphi Theatre and the Haymarket Theatre, managing the Haymarket from 1853 to 1877. Biography Buckstone was born in Hoxton, London, the son of John Buckstone, a retired shopkeeper, and his wife Elizabeth (née Baldwin).Roy, Donald"Buckstone, John Baldwin (1802–1879)" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, January 2008, accessed 3 January 2015 He was educated at Walworth Grammar School and was briefly apprenticed on a naval ship at age 10 but returned to school. He studied law and was articled to a solicitor but turned to acting by age 19.''The Times'', 1 November 1879, p. 5 Early career Buckstone first joined a travelling troupe in 1821 as Gabriel in ''The Children in the Wood''. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Melodrama
A modern melodrama is a dramatic work in which the plot, typically sensationalized and for a strong emotional appeal, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodramas typically concentrate on dialogue that is often bombastic or excessively sentimental, rather than action. Characters are often flat, and written to fulfill stereotypes. Melodramas are typically set in the private sphere of the home, focusing on morality and family issues, love, and marriage, often with challenges from an outside source, such as a "temptress", a scoundrel, or an aristocratic villain. A melodrama on stage, filmed, or on television is usually accompanied by dramatic and suggestive music that offers cues to the audience of the drama being presented. In scholarly and historical musical contexts, ''melodramas'' are Victorian dramas in which orchestral music or song was used to accompany the action. The term is now also applied to stage performances without incidental music, novels, films, tel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fanny Fitzwilliam
Frances "Fanny" Elizabeth Fitzwilliam (''née'' Copeland) (26 July 1801 – 11 September 1854) was an English actress. Life She was the actress daughter of Robert Copeland, manager of the Dover theatrical circuit. As "Miss Copeland" she made her name at the Surrey Theatre with Thomas John Dibdin. After marrying the actor Edward Fitzwilliam she performed as "Mrs. Fitzwilliam", becoming a leading London actress and theatre manager. For many years she was closely associated with John Baldwin Buckstone who, after the death of her husband, she was due to marry in 1854. On 11 September 1854, she died of cholera at Richmond Lodge, Putney, a month before her planned wedding to Buckstone. She was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery, three days after her death. Fanny had two children from her marriage to Edward – a son, musical composer Edward Francis Fitzwilliam and a daughter, actress and singer Kathleen Fitzwilliam. Fanny Fitzwilliam as "Addeline" Stage appearances * 1802 As Fann ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas John Dibdin
Thomas John Dibdin (21 March 1771 – 16 September 1841) was an English dramatist and songwriter. Life Dibdin was the son of Charles Dibdin, a songwriter and theatre manager, and of "Mrs Davenet", an actress whose real name was Harriett Pitt. He was introduced to the stage at five years old, in his godfather David Garrick’s pageant of ‘’Jubilee of Shakespeare’’. Mrs Siddons was The Venus and the Young Tom Cupid. He was apprenticed to his maternal uncle, a London upholsterer, and later to William Rawlins, afterwards sheriff of London. He summoned his second master unsuccessfully for rough treatment; and after a few years of service he ran away to join a company of country players. From 1789 to 1795 he played all sorts of parts; he worked as a scene painter at Liverpool in 1791; and during this period he composed more than 1,000 songs. His first work as a dramatist was ''Something New'', followed by ''The Mad Guardian'' in 1795. He returned to London in 1795, having m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
