The Theatre in Early Kentucky: 1790-1820
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University of Kentucky UKnowledge Theatre History Theatre and Performance Studies 1971 The Theatre in Early Kentucky: 1790-1820 West T. Hill Jr. Centre College Click here to let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Thanks to the University of Kentucky Libraries and the University Press of Kentucky, this book is freely available to current faculty, students, and staff at the University of Kentucky. Find other University of Kentucky Books at uknowledge.uky.edu/upk. For more information, please contact UKnowledge at [email protected]. Recommended Citation Hill, West T. Jr., "The Theatre in Early Kentucky: 1790-1820" (1971). Theatre History. 2. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_theatre_history/2 This page intentionally left blank Noah Miller Ludlow. Courtesy of the Theatre Collection, New York Public Library. THE THEATRE IN EARLY KENTUCKY This page intentionally left blank WEST T. HILL, }R. The Theatre in Early Kentucky 1790-1820 THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KENTUCKY Copyright © 1971 by The University Press of Kentucky Paperback edition 2009 The University Press of Kentucky Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth, serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, The Filson Historical Society, Georgetown College, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University. All rights reserved. Editorial and Sales Offices: The University Press of Kentucky 663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008 www.kentuckypress.com Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN 978-0-8131-9336-6 (pbk: acid-free paper) This book is printed on acid-free recycled paper meeting the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials. Manufactured in the United States of America. Member of the Association of American University Presses For Dorothy Belle This page intentionally left blank Contents CHAPTER ONE The Athens of the West 1 CHAPTER TWO The First Dramatic Performances 9 CHAPTER THREE The First Permanent Theatres 19 CHAPTER FOUR Professional Players in Kentucky 46 CHAPTER FIVE The First Western Circuit 72 CHAPTER SIX Arrival of the Drakes 109 CHAPTER SEVEN Drake's Western Theatrical Empire qo BIBLIOGRAPHY 16 5 APPENDIX Record of Performances, 1790-1820 171 INDEX 193 This page intentionally left blank Illustrations frontispiece Noah Miller Ludlow Illustrations follow p. 66 Satterwhite's Inn notice, Lexington Reporter, 15 December 1808; first recorded theatrical performance in the West, Mirror (Wash ington, Ky.), 30 September 1797; first mention of the word theatre, Stewart's Kentucky Herald (Lexington), 19 May 1801; unlocated Lexington theatre, Kentucky Gazette (Lexington), 1 January 1802; Luke Usher's "The Sign of the Ship," Gazette, 26 March 1819; Blue Beard performance, Gazette, 17 April1810; first recorded cast list in the West, Gazette, 1 May 1810; first theatre and Old Drury Theatre in Pittsburgh; first recorded appearance of a professional actor in the West, Gazette, 11 September 1810; probable first Shakespearean performance in the West, Gazette, 9 October 1810; first appearance of a professional company in Frankfort, Palladium (Frankfort), 12 January 1811; first appearance of a professional company in the West, Reporter, 22 December 1810; Romeo and Juliet performance, Gazette, 19 February 1811; Bunker Hill performance, Gazette, 24 August 1813; The Merchant of Venice performance, Gazette, 18 Sep tember 1815; Hamlet performance, Gazette, 24 July 1815; Jef ferson and Blisset in A Budget of Blunders; Frances Ann Denny (Mrs. Alexander Drake); Julia Drake (Mrs. Edwin Dean); Julia Dean (daughter of Julia Drake); notice from a Lexington news paper, 12 November 1817; notice from a Frankfort newspaper, 26 November 1817; notice from a Louisville newspaper, 8 June 1819; Thomas D. Rice as Jim Crow. This page intentionally left blank Preface THis is a chronological record of theatrical production in the area of America's first frontier, beginning with the earliest stage announcement in 1790 and concluding with Samuel Drake's established Kentucky Circuit in 1819. These twenty-nine years represent a distinct period in American theatre, the struggle to establish dramatic production in what had only recently been the domain of the Indians and the long gun hunters. After 1820 dramatic art witnessed a widespread growth. Traveling companies organized by Ludlow, Caldwell, Turner, Collins and Jones, Drake, and others moved into many areas of the West and South. The early pioneer era of western stage development was over. Furthermore, this is a theatrical record, not a literary analysis or evaluation of the dramas of the period. I have in the main recorded information about theatres, methods of production, actors, managers, circuits, performances, and critical reviews. Theatrical notices in the early western newspapers were the principal source. Although these advertisements were at times fragmentary and sporadic, they constitute the most accurate production data for the period. To avoid routine listings of performance data in the text, I have included a complete pro duction record in the appendix. The earliest American stage historians recorded theatrical development in the populated centers: New York, Philadel phia, Boston, Baltimore, and Charleston. They paid little attention to the growing interests in drama production west of the Allegheny Mountains. Although stage activity, both amateur and professional, flourished in certain areas of that :ri Xll PREFACE region after 1790, it was generally ignored by writers of theat rical history until the twentieth century. A few actors and managers who worked the western circuits wrote memoirs, journals, and diary accounts of their activities in the theatre. The best of these, Noah Miller Ludlow's Dramatic Life As I Found It, was not published until 1880, sixty years after the early period. Nevertheless, throughout the twentieth century Ludlow's account of his experiences in the West and South has been the principal source of early western stage activity; in fact contemporary stage historians usually treat the frontier period with little more detail than a cursory quotation from his narrative of the Drakes' trek to Kentucky in 1815. Interesting and significant as Ludlow's journal is, it is not a history of the early western theatre, nor is it a record of early theatrical performances. Indeed theatrical activity had been developing, especially in Kentucky, for years before Lud low arrived on the scene. That Kentucky was the principal area of western drama production before 1820 is a matter of statistical record. Ken tucky audiences witnessed nearly 600 dramatic performances from 1790 to 1820, an almost unbelievable number, especially compared with the dearth of theatrical production in other parts of the West during the same period. Cincinnati, the only town in Ohio that recorded performances during the same period, had 54; and St. Louis, representing Missouri, had 32. 1 Thus the record of stage activity in Kentucky before 1820 represents nearly a complete theatrical history of the American West during this early period. The pioneer dramatic develop ment in Kentucky made significant contributions to later theatrical enterprises throughout the West and the South. I wish to express my gratitude to those who have helped me at the University of Chicago Library Rare Books Depart ment, the New York Public Library Theatre Collection, the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts Library, the Library 1 William G. B. Carson, The Theatre on the Frontier: The Early Years of the St. Louis Stage (Chicago, 1932), pp. 318-19. Hereafter cited as The Theatre on the Frontier. Preface Xlll of Congress Rare Books Division, the Kentucky Room of the Louisville Public Library, the Filson Club in Louisville, the Cincinnati Historical Society, the Missouri Historical Society, the University of Pittsburgh Library, the Lexington Public Library, and the Kentucky Historical Society in Frankfort. For help with particular aspects of the study I am grateful to Mrs. Dorothy Cullen, former curator of the Filson Club; the late Mr. G. Glenn Clift, assistant director and editor of the Kentucky Historical Society; and Mrs. Sabra Barbour, librarian of the Centre College of Kentucky Library. I wish to thank Mr. J. Winston Coleman, Jr., and the late Mr. Charles Staples, Ken tucky historians, for their help with local historical and theat rical information. I am especially grateful to Dr. John J. Weisert, professor of modern languages at the University of Louisville, who kindly provided valuable newspaper materials and offered general assistance with some of the research. I should like to thank Mr. William G. B. Carson and the pub lishing company of Benjamin Blom for permission to use the picture of Julia Dean, the publishers Harper and Brothers for permission to use the picture of "Jim Crow" Rice, and Mr. Charles A. Thomas of Danville, Kentucky, for providing most of the photographs taken from early newspapers. Finally, I am grateful to Centre College, which provided financial aid for this research. This page intentionally left blank * 1 * The Athens of the West ENTUCKY, the "dark and bloody ground," became a Kmelting pot for many American pioneers after their struggle for independence. Restless