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[Program for Boston Theatre, Boston, "Hamlet"]

MSS255_O_020-01

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Title	[Program for Boston Theatre, Boston, "Hamlet]
Date	1886-12-16
Production	Hamlet
Character roles	Edwin Booth (Hamlet); Charles Barron (The Ghost); John Malone (King Claudius); Carl Ahrendt (Polonius); John T. Sullivan (Laertes); Chas. Hanford (Horatio); H. C. Barton (Rosencrantz); Edwin Royle (Guildenstern); Chas. Abbe (Osric); John Doud (Marcellus); F. K. Harte (Bernardo); J. Brown (Francisco); T. L. Coleman (First Actor); Walter Thomas (Second Actor); Owen Fawcett (First Grave-Digger); L. J. Henderson (Second Grave-Digger); Volney Streamer (Priest); Augusta Foster (Queen Gertrude); Emma Vaders (Ophelia); Kate Molony (Player Queen)
Artistic roles	Edwin Booth (Actor); Arthur B. Chase (Manager)
Genre	Shakespeare tragedy
Theme	Dynasties Shakespeare
Places	Boston (M.A.)
Item description	Program from Boston Theatre dated December 16, 1886 featuring Edwin Booth (1833-1893) in the role of "Hamlet." The program is printed on both sides of one large sheet of paper and folded in half to form four pages. The program contains the cast list for "Hamlet" the list of orchestra selections for the evening, a staff list for the theatre, and advertising for clothing, gloves, pianos, photography, cigars, and exercise equipment, among others. As Christmas was nearing, many of the advertisements make use of the holiday to sell their products.
Object narrative	Edwin Booth (1833-1893) was born Edwin Thomas Booth, the fourth son of prominent tragic actor, Junius Brutus Booth in Baltimore. He was named after another great tragic actor in Booth's circle, Edwin Forrest. The next son to be born to Booth would be John Wilkes. All his life Edwin had an observant, thoughtful, melancholy disposition (Winter, Biographical Sketch 9), according to William Winter, critic and biographer of the time. In 1846, Edwin's education came to a standstill as he was called upon to act as his father's companion while he was touring. The elder Booth was not capable of staying sober or taking care of himself while away from Edwin's mother; Edwin became a soothing and loyal chaperon to his father, and also gained his father's skill in playing great tragic roles. In 1849 at the age of sixteen, he first stepped on stage to relieve the stage manager of the role of Tressel in Richard III. He continued after this to play in other small and large roles alongside his father. In 1852, Junius Brutus Booth Sr. died and Edwin continued to perform in the Western states and even toured to Australia and Hawaii with Laura Keene, but his father's penchant for hard drinking and carousing rubbed off on him. Returning East in 1856, his experience building both farcical and tragic roles over the preceding years brought him almost immediate fame and recognition. Important and known roles in his repertoire included Hamlet, Richard III, Sir Giles Overreach (A New Way to Pay Old Debts), Richelieu, Shylock, and Lear. On April 14, 1865, he had just finished a performance of Hamlet in Boston when word reached him that his brother, John Wilkes, also an actor, had shot President Lincoln in Ford's Theatre in Washington D.C. Edwin retired from the stage in mortification and grief, but returned in January 1866. He would eventually open his own theatre in New York in 1869, which closed in 1883, leading him back to the touring life in his later years, which he detested because of the loneliness and harshness of travel methods. This program is from the Boston Theatre on December 16, 1886. Previous to Boston, the company Booth was traveling with had been to St. Louis, Michigan, Chicago, and New York. He had suffered from vertigo during the tour, and had fallen onstage on more than one occasion, causing the press and critics to vilify him as being a drunkard once more. Friends came to his defense through letters to the press, and Booth continued to play to packed houses in every city. His daughter Edwina had married the previous year and now had a child, and the loss of her companionship ushered in great loneliness. The acting company featured in this program had noticed this and taken to inviting Booth to eat dinner with them at their hotels which was against the etiquette of star actors eating with the support (Ruggles 325). This program is for Hamlet, a part to which Booth claims a lasting legacy. In 1864-1865, Booth had performed a one hundred night run of the play, a record not to be broken until John Barrymore performed one hundred and one performances in 1922. Booth's Hamlet was much different than previous actors' interpretations, preferring a brooding, contemplative, naturalistic style to the bombastic style of his father and Edwin Forrest.
Type	Text
Original format	Programs
Original publisher	[Place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified]
Language	en
Contributing institution	Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, UNCG University Libraries
Source collection	MSS255 Robert C. Hansen Performing Arts Collection
Series/grouping	1.1.1.5: Programs -- Theatre Programs -- United States Theatre Programs -- Other US 1.1.1.5: Programs -- Theatre Programs -- United States Theatre Programs -- Other US
Box	Oversize
Finding aid link	http://library.uncg.edu/info/depts/scua/collections/manuscripts/ead/mss255.xml
Preferred citation	[Identification of item], Robert C. Hansen Performing Arts Collection, 1753-2006 (MSS255), Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives and Manuscripts, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA.
Rights statement	http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/
Additional rights information	NO COPYRIGHT - UNITED STATES. This item has been determined to be free of copyright restrictions in the United States. The user is responsible for determing actual copyright status for any reuse of the material.
Object ID	MSS255.O.020
Digital publisher	The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, University Libraries, PO Box 26170, Greensboro NC 27402-6170, 336.334.5304
OCLC number	872280771

Title	MSS255_O_020-01
Language	English
Contributing institution	Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, UNCG University Libraries
Finding aid link	http://library.uncg.edu/info/depts/scua/collections/manuscripts/ead/mss255.xml
Preferred citation	[Identification of item], Robert C. Hansen Performing Arts Collection, 1753-2006 (MSS255), Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives and Manuscripts, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA.

[Program for Boston Theatre, Boston, "Hamlet"]

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[Program for Boston Theatre, Boston, "Hamlet"]

[Program for Boston Theatre, Boston, "Hamlet"]