The equestrian theatre company of Pépin and Breschard, American

Victor Pépin Victor Adolphus Pépin (March 8, 1780 – 1845) was an American circus performer and circus owner most famous for being a partner in the Circus of Pépin and Breschard. The Circus of Pépin and Breschard can thus be considered the first American ...

and Frenchman Jean Baptiste Casmiere Breschard, arrived in the

United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

from

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

(where they had performed during the 1805 and 1806 seasons), in November 1807. They toured that new country until 1815. From their arrival until the present day, what is now known as the traditional

circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicyclis ...

has had a presence in North America. Invited to perform in the United States by Spanish Ambassador

Luis de Onís Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archaic ...

, the company landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts from Spain. They performed their first season in Charlestown, Massachusetts, after being refused a permit to perform in neighboring

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

. In the following years Pépin and Breschard's troupes built

theatres in cities across the United States, including New York, New York;

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

; Charlestown, Massachusetts;

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; Richmond, Virginia;

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; Charleston, South Carolina;

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and

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. They also built a theatre in

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. The oldest continuously operating theatre in the English-speaking world and the oldest theatre in the United States, the

Walnut Street Theatre The Walnut Street Theatre, founded in 1809 at 825 Walnut Street, on the corner of S. 9th Street in the Washington Square West neighborhood of Philadelphia, is the oldest operating theatre in the United States. The venue is operated by the Walnu ...

was built by Pépin and Breschard in 1809. During the early 19th century, the word "circus" was used primarily to indicate the equestrian theatre building itself. Pépin and Breschard introduced at least one

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

an play to the US and were one of the first, if not the first, companies in America to perform hippodrama. They were the first to bring a circus west of the Appalachian Mountains to such frontier cities as

, PA, where

Benjamin Latrobe Benjamin Henry Boneval Latrobe (May 1, 1764 – September 3, 1820) was an Anglo-American Neoclassical architecture, neoclassical architect who emigrated to the United States. He was one of the first formally trained, professional architects in t ...

, a designer of the

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, was the architect for a circus he built for them in 1814. An early member of the company, Peter Grain, later achieved a degree of fame as a painter and dioramist. Pépin and Breschard are referenced in the United States Congressional Record of 1810.Benton, Thomas Hart. ''Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856''. New York, NY: D. Appleton and Company, 1857. Pépin, born in what is now

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, was the first American to own and operate a circus in his native country. The theatrical company of Pépin and Breschard thus can be considered the first American circus.

References

External links

* http://www.walnutstreettheatre.org/about/theatre-history.php

References

External links

Further reading