Samuel Drake, Early American Theatre Pioneer
Prof. Anthony Haigh (Centre College, Kentucky)
Monday 23rd February, 18.30 to 20.00
Room C 118, Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance, Sidcup DA15 9DF.
Samuel Drake was an English Actor-Manager who created the first permanent, professional theatre in the American West. He was born into the era of Garrick and left the Theatre Royal in Exeter for America when John Philip Kemble and Sarah Siddons were taking London by storm. Settling in Albany, capital of New York State, he established himself as a leading actor. In 1815 he began a journey with his family and a group of novice actors that was to take him overland to the American frontier – then Kentucky. There he established theatres in Frankfort, Lexington and Louisville and sent tours out even further into the wilderness. The Drake company were welcomed like “water carriers in the desert.” He retired in 1830 and gave over the management of his theatres to his daughter-in-law, famed actress Francis Ann Denny.
Anthony Haigh, an alumnus and fellow of Rose Bruford College, is currently resident in Kentucky where he is Professor of Theatre at Centre College. In the late 1990’s Dr. Haigh wrote a one-man play about Samuel Drake which he toured throughout Kentucky for three years. He has also contributed essays on Drake and his circle to the American National Biography.
This event is FREE
For further details, please contact Dr Paul Fryer (paul.fryer@bruford.ac.uk)