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Early Theatres in Rhode Island

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 July 2009

Donald C. Mullin
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Extract

In the decade before the Revolutionary War, the city of Newport was one of the major centers of Colonial culture, ranking with New York and Philadelphia, and far ahead of the village of Boston. It was the only settlement in New England thought cosmopolitan enough by David Douglass to support the introduction of a professional theatre troupe. The Douglass-Hallam company had performed successfully in the southern and middle-Atlantic colonies, and the manager apparently was determined to attempt his luck further north in order to supplement the rather thin living the company managed to make from giving performances in America. Boston, with its sectarian rigidity, was clearly out of the question. Newport, on the other hand, with its wealthy and travelled shipping interests, seemed distinctly possible as a base for what was hoped to be a larger sphere of performance. Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (“Rhode Island” in Colonial times meant only the Island of Rhode Island, not the entire area we now know as the State) had no law against theatrical performances, principally because none had ever been given in the Colony to object to. The Douglass-Hallam company moved north in 1761 and began what was to be a series of attempts to penetrate the resistance of New Englanders to frivolities and delights.

Type
Research Article
Information
Theatre Survey , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , November 1970 , pp. 167 - 186
Copyright
Copyright © American Society for Theatre Research 1970

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References

Notes

1. Henry Bull, Memoir of Rhode Island, p. 45. Bull's Memoirs is a scrapbook of articles published in the Newport Republican, 1832–58, and in the Newport Mercury, 1854–61. Pagination for these notes is from the copy in the collection of the Rhode Island Historical Society. Pre-Revolutionary copies of the Mercury are extremely rare, and none of those surviving mention the Newport theatres. We are, therefore, entirely dependent upon quotations from private copies in the hands of later writers.

2. Ibid.

3. Ibid.

4. Ibid., pp. 45–46.

5. Newport Mercury, September 15, 1761. Quoted in Bull, p. 45.

6. Willard, George, A History of the Providence Stage (Providence, 1891), pp. 8–9.Google Scholar

7. Bull, p. 46.

8. Eaton, Walter Prichard, The Actor's Heritage (Boston, 1924), p. 267.Google Scholar

9. Blake, Charles, Historical Account of the Providence Stage (Providence, 1868), p. 15.Google Scholar

10. Brown, B.W., “The Colonial Theatre in New England,” Special Bulletin No. 76, Newport Historical Society (July, 1930), p. 16.Google Scholar

11. Providence Magazine, November 1914, p. 718.

12. Ibid.

13. Ibid.

14. Blake, p. 45.

15. Willard, p. 23.

16. Isham, N.M., “Report on the Old Brick Market,” Bulletin, Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, VI, 2 (1915), 21Google Scholar. The quotation is from the Appendix, compiled by Edith Tilly.

17. Bull, p. 47.

18. Blake, p. 47.

19. Durang, John, The Memoir of John Durang, ed. Downer, Alan S. (Pittsburgh, 1966), p. 38Google Scholar.

20. From The Rhode Islander, January 12, 1842. Given by Tilly in the Isham Appendix, p. 21.

21. Ibid., p. 22. It was during these alterations that the interior walls were first redone, covering over the original plaster. The most recent restoration uncovered a portion of the original plaster which remained, and on this was a crude wash sketch of a sailboat done in blue and red distemper. A few scholars have thought this to be part of a scenic background painted on the stage wall. A patch of plaster between two large windows seems an unlikely place for a scenic representation, and other evidence points to the stage having been located at the other end of the building (the original stairs on Thames Street were widened). Any stage on the Thames Street side, then, would have audience entering up through the forestage, another unlikely prospect. It is certain that the stage was at the western end, and that the painted sailboat was only decoration in the passage to the boxes.

22. Willard, p. 23.

23. Mason, George, Reminiscences of Newport (Newport, 1884), p. 124Google Scholar.

24. Burnim, Kalman A., “Hartford's First Theatre: A Chapter in the History of the Old American Company,” Theatre Survey, IX, 2 (November, 1968), 90Google Scholar.

25. Blake, pp. 48–49.

26. Providence Gazette, December 27, 1794.

27. From announcements printed in the Providence Gazette. Original spellings retained.

28. Blake, p. 51.

29. “Memoirs of an Octogenarian,” a clipping from a scrapbook of pieces from the Providence Journal, n.a., n.d. (ca. 1885), in the Rhode Island Historical Society.

30. Blake, pp. 51–52.

31. Willard, p. 28.

32. Burnim, p. 90.

33. Ibid., p. 93.

34. From a letter by Joseph Ashton to the theatre building committee, August 15, 1795. Quoted in Bumim, p. 94.

35. “Memoirs of an Octogenarian.”

36. Blake, pp. 51–52.

37. Ibid., p. 57.

38. Willard, p. 38.

39. Ibid., pp. 33–115, passim.

40. Blake, p. 71.

41. Ibid., p. 141.

42. Ibid., p. 142.

43. Ibid., p. 189.

44. Willard, p. 112.

45. Ibid., p. 113. The final performance was that given by Mr. Hilson, noted above.

46. Isham, p. 10.