Mrs. John Wood (6 November 1831 (baptised 28 November),

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

– 11 January 1915,

Birchington-on-Sea Birchington-on-Sea is a village in the Thanet district in Kent, England, with a population of 9,961. The village forms part of the civil parish of Birchington. It lies on the coast facing the North Sea, east of the Thames Estuary, between th ...

), born Matilda Charlotte Vining, was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

actress and

theatre manager Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

Biography

Born into a

theatrical Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actor, actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The p ...

family, Matilda Charlotte Vining travelled the country as a

child actor The term child actor or child actress is generally applied to a child acting on stage or in movies or television. An adult who began their acting career as a child may also be called a child actor, or a "former child actor". Closely associated t ...

. Over time, she developed a talent for

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

. An older cousin was Fanny Vining. In 1854, Vining married John Wood, an English actor. The couple moved to Boston, Massachusetts, where they became involved in

American theatre Theater in the United States is part of the old European theatrical tradition and has been heavily influenced by the British theater. The central hub of the American theater scene is Manhattan, with its divisions of Broadway, Off-Broadway, and ...

. Her first part in the United States was that of Gertrude in ''A Loan of a Lover'' on 11 September 1854. The Woods played Boston for three seasons, and for the first three months of their third, appeared at the

Wallack's Theatre Three New York City playhouses named Wallack's Theatre played an important part in the history of American theater, as the successive homes of the stock company managed by actors James W. Wallack and his son, Lester Wallack. During its 35-ye ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. New York was already the centre of American theatre, and Mrs. John Wood came to outshine her husband. T. Allston Brown, a contemporary historian of the theatre, offers this explanation for her fame:

Mrs. John Wood was a very pretty woman, possessing a fine figure and an attractive face. Her style was excellent in everything she attempted. She read well, had a melodious voice, was affecting in pathetic scenes and lively in those of a cheerful character, was a graceful dancer, and, although her voice was not very strong, it was melodious and well cultivated. She possessed the artistic talent which satisfied every demand that could be made by the most rigid stickler for a high degree of merit in a theatrical artist.

Mr. and Mrs. Wood again played Wallack's in the summer of 1857, then moved to

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. There they played Maguire's Opera House on 18 January 1858. This season, Mrs. John Wood gained renown for her roles in '' Hi-a-wa-tha; or, Ardent Spirit and Laughing Waters'' and '' Love's Disguises''. She may have managed two theatres during this period: Forrest Theatre in

Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

for a few weeks in 1858 and the American Theatre in San Francisco from March 1859 to the beginning of summer. In mid-1859, she parted ways with her husband, daughter, and mother and returned to New York. There she joined

Dion Boucicault Dionysius Lardner "Dion" Boucicault (né Boursiquot; 26 December 1820 – 18 September 1890) was an Irish actor and playwright famed for his melodramas. By the later part of the 19th century, Boucicault had become known on both sides of the ...

's troupe at the

Winter Garden Theatre The Winter Garden Theatre is a Broadway theatre at 1634 Broadway in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. It opened in 1911 under designs by architect William Albert Swasey. The Winter Garden's current design dates to 1922, when ...

. She and Boucicault clashed, so Mrs. Wood decided to tour New York independently for three seasons. On 2 April 1861, ten days before the outbreak of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

, Mrs. John Wood performed "

Dixie Dixie, also known as Dixieland or Dixie's Land, is a nickname for all or part of the Southern United States. While there is no official definition of this region (and the included areas shift over the years), or the extent of the area it cover ...

" for a concluding scene featuring a Zouave march in a production of the burlesque '' Po-ca-hon-tas'' in New Orleans. The song was well-received and encored seven times,Reinert, pp. 7-8. contributing to the popularity of the song as a Civil War anthem for the Confederacy. Mrs. Wood met

Laura Keene Laura Keene (20 July 1826 – 4 November 1873) was a British stage actress and theatre manager. In her twenty-year career, she became known as the first powerful female manager in New York. She is most famous for being the lead actress in ...

in the summer of 1860 while playing at Keene's playhouse, which was renamed the

Olympic Theatre The Olympic Theatre, sometimes known as the Royal Olympic Theatre, was a 19th-century London theatre, opened in 1806 and located at the junction of Drury Lane, Wych Street and Newcastle Street. The theatre specialised in comedies throughout ...

in 1863. She managed Jane English's Theatre from its reopening on 8 October 1863. Soon after, she became manager of the Olympic, which changed its name to Mrs. John Wood's Olympic Theatre. She stayed there three seasons, during which she concentrated on burlesques and

comedies Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term origin ...

. On 30 June 1866, she departed for

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Mrs. Wood continued her management career at the

St James's Theatre The St James's Theatre was in King Street, St James's, London. It opened in 1835 and was demolished in 1957. The theatre was conceived by and built for a popular singer, John Braham; it lost money and after three seasons he retired. A succ ...

in London from 1869 until mid-1872. She then returned to the United States for the 1872–73 season, then returned to England. In 1881, she appeared in ''

Foggerty's Fairy ''Foggerty's Fairy'', subtitled "An Entirely Original Fairy Farce", is a three-act farce by W.S. Gilbert based loosely on Gilbert's short story, "The Story of a Twelfth Cake", which was published in the Christmas Number of ''The Graphic'' in 18 ...

'' by

W. S. Gilbert Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (18 November 1836 – 29 May 1911) was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his collaboration with composer Arthur Sullivan, which produced fourteen comic operas. The most fam ...

. Until her retirement in 1893, she managed a number of English theatres. Mrs. Wood died in 1915 at the age of 83 in

Thanet Thanet may refer to: *Isle of Thanet, a former island, now a peninsula, at the most easterly point of Kent, England *Thanet District, a local government district containing the island *Thanet College, former name of East Kent College *Thanet Canal, ...

, Kent, England.

Notes

References

* Brown, T. Allston (1903). ''A History of the New York Stage: From the First Performance in 1732 to 1901''. Dodd, Mead and Company. * Roberts, Vera Mowry (1993). ''The American Stage: Social and Economic Issues from the Colonial Period to the Present''.New York: Cambridge University Press. * * * Reinert, Thomas D. (2013). "Mrs. John Wood: Unrecognized 'Burlesque Queen' of the Nineteenth Century American Stage." Thomas D. Reinert
Apple iBook 591677282
* Newcomb, J., Peters, W. H., Emmett, Danl. D. (music), Viereck, J. C. (arranger). "I Wish I Was In Dixies Land." New Orleans, P. P. Werlein; New York, Firth Pond & Co., 1860. Cover text "Sung by Mrs. John Wood." {{DEFAULTSORT:Wood, Mrs. John English child actresses English stage actresses English theatre managers and producers Women theatre managers and producers 1831 births 1915 deaths Actresses from Liverpool Actor-managers 19th-century English businesspeople