Adventures in Theater History: Philadelphia

Would Sunday in New York perform on Saturday in Philadelphia? Were the "riffraff and lowlifes" of Brecht's Threepenny Opera   suitable for its Playhouse in the Park? Could the first publicly funded and owned city theater in the country survive in the maelstrom of Philadelphia city politics? Find out on today's episode - as we continue our Season Two "Drama Is Conflict,&quo...

An interview with the Producing Artistic Director of the historic Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia, Bernard Havard. Visit our website for a blog post with photos of our tour, including many of the items we discuss in the episode: https://www.aithpodcast.com/blog/photos-for-the-walls-of-walnut-street/ Support the show "Adventures in Theater History: Philadelphia" the BOOK can be orde...

During the Great Depression years of the 1930s, some touring Broadway shows got into trouble in Philadelphia. "The People's Mayor" S. Davis Wilson had his limits when it came to what he would allow in the city's theaters. Under his administration, such disparate plays as Tobacco Road , New Faces of 1936 , and Langston Hughes' Mulatto make the news, as the Philadelphia Poli...

In the 1920s, Philadelphia theater censorship controversies were usually about what women were wearing - or rather were NOT wearing - on the city's stages. A great cast of historical characters in this episode, set during the Prohibition Era: fan dancer Sally Rand, bandleader Ted ("Is Everybody Happy?") Lewis, The Marx Brothers, Broadway producer Earl Carroll,  General Smedley Butle...

In 1911, actress Sarah Bernhardt's production of La Samaritaine met with fervent opposition from Philadelphia clergymen. In 1912, the Irish Players' production of Playboy of the Western World caused yet another Philly audience riot! What was going on? Listen and find out! It's all part of our continuing Season Two: "Drama Is Conflict". Please Note : There is nothing immora...

The last installment of the saga of Oscar Hammerstein in the "Opera Wars" - and the grand Philadelphia theater he left behind, when the war was over. We also meet the New York banker Otto Kahn - the power behind the rival Metropolitan Opera - and how that name gets transferred to the Philadelphia building. Despite many transformations, over the years it has remained a grand temple of Mus...

February 1909: The opera "Salome" at Oscar Hammerstein's new Philadelphia Opera House needed to be stopped, as a matter of public decency, declared hundreds of clergymen and civic leaders. Meanwhile, the impresario himself was threatening to take his newly-founded opera company back to New York, and set up the enormous theater as a vaudeville house instead! What was going on? This i...

November 17, 1908 : The magnificent new theater on North Broad Street was ready for its first opera! It was "as if some master magician's wand had called it into being," wrote one admiring journalist. Everyone in the Philadelphia - especially its most wealthy and socially prominent citizens - could hardly wait to get inside to the opening night production of "Carmen." But...

1906: A coalition of African American men attempt to stop Thomas Dixon Jr.'s play The Clansman from being performed in Philadelphia. After leading a public protest in front of the Walnut Street Theatre, the whole matter ends up in City Hall, at a hearing before Mayor John Weaver. There is a blog post on our website, which has additional information and images about the historical characters i...

Seven short and light vignettes from the history of Philadelphia Theater - all of which took place in the city during the Holidays, from various theatrical seasons over the past 150 years. A gift to all of you listeners and supporters of the podcast. We hope you have a wonderful and restful Holiday season, and that the New Year of 2023 brings you health, happiness - and plenty of chances to go out...

We continue our story about Thomas Dixon Jr. and his 1905 play The Clansman with an examination of the early life of this formidable man. We learn the root causes of his political obsessions - and about his need to express himself in the world of the theater. Also in this episode, we finally meet J. Frederick Zimmerman and Samuel F. Nixon, the two Philadelphia theatrical producers who were key mem...

We begin the harrowing and alarming story of "The Clansman," in Philadelphia. Although this play by the author Thomas W. Dixon is know as the progenitor to the 1915 D.W. Griffith film "Birth of the Nation," few are aware of its early controversial history, The narrative begins in the streets outside the Walnut Street Theatre, as a large crowd of the city's Black citizens h...

A re-broadcast of an episode originally released in November of 2021. In honor of Native American Heritage Month, an exploration of performances by Indigenous People in theaters of the City of Philadelphia in the 19th Century. We also detail plays by white performers that supposedly depicted Native people and stories in that period. The attached image for the episode is a detail of an illustration...

The mob is gathering in the street outside the Chestnut Street Theatre, while inside the rehearsals for the scandalous play The Quaker City go on! The thrilling conclusion of our three part series! Will it all end in a deadly riot? The suspense is building . . . For a blog post about this episode, with more information and images about the people and events in our story, go to: https://www.aithpod...

George Lippard's novel "The Quaker City, or the Monk's of Monk Hall" is made into a new play. The excitement about it builds in Philadelphia, just as the national election of 1844 roils the city. We learn more about the young Philadelphia writer, and how he was recruited by theater manager Francis Wemyss to provide a script for his Chestnut Street Theatre. Meanwhile, one of Phi...

The theater of Philadelphia was being staged during the roiling years of the 1840s. Bankruptcies, riots, labor unrest, growing religious fervor and racial tensions, rising crime (and public perception of crime due to increasing availability of journals and newspapers) were everywhere. This is the context for the first episode of our Season Two: "Drama is Conflict," in which we set the sc...

A quick announcement about our upcoming season of new episodes . . . For an exciting season about Philadelphia's "Theatre History" or "Theater History" - however, you spell it, this is the place. Spoiler Alert: There will be lots of drama. And conflict! Support the show "Adventures in Theater History: Philadelphia" the BOOK can be ordered from independent booksto...

Jasper Deeter formed the Hedgerow Theatre company in 1923. Though seemingly self-isolated in the small and intense community of theater workers he had gathered, his work as a director,  actor, visionary and longtime acting teacher had a profound affect on shaping Philadelphia's - and America's - theater for years to come. In this show we interview theater historian Barry Witham about his...

This special episode of the podcast goes on a journey to the Paul Robeson House and Museum in Philadelphia. Included is an interview with Janice Sykes-Ross of the West Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, and a recording of a live tour of the Paul Robeson House with docent Terry Fimiano Guerin. For a blog post on our website with additional information, images, and links, go to: https://www.aithpodcast...

Like the ghost of Hamlet's father, John Barrymore wouldn't stay still and  kept showing up! A chapter about Philadelphia's most famous acting family, from Wicked Philadelphia , a book by Thomas H. Keels Wicked Philadelphia: Sin in the City of Brotherly Love by Thomas Keels, is available on Amazon.com. Please visit Tom's website, www.thomaskeels.com , for more information on his...

As an addendum to Season One, here are six more stories of 19th C. Philadelphia theater. We discuss Alexander Reinagle, Joseph Jefferson III, James Murdoch, Matilda Heron, John McCullough - as well as two stagehands at the Walnut Street Theater you likely never heard of before, but may never forget! To see images and more information about today's subjects, see the blog post on our podcast&ap...

An interview/conversation with Jonathan Shandell, the author of a January 2022 article in the journal Theater History Studies entitled "Caricatured, Marginalized, Betrayed".  The article examines the history of the Philadelphia "Negro Unit" of the Federal Theatre Project in the 1930s - specifically the history of three plays produced by the FTP at the Walnut Street Theatre. You...

January 1990: The appointment of Mary B. Robinson as the new Artistic Director of the Philadelphia Drama Guild is announced, taking over from outgoing Artistic Director Gregory Poggi. In the fall of 2021, Mary Robinson sat down for a talk with Adventures in Theater History. It was also the first time she had publicly discussed her four-and-a-half year long tenure at the Drama Guild in since 1995....

From the 1876 Centennial Exposition to the end of the 19th Century, Philadelphia's experienced a boom in theater construction. New plays, musicals, operettas and vaudeville shows constantly cycled in and out of the city to fill these theaters. By the 1890s, one newspaperman estimated that on average each of Philadelphia's one million people saw five shows a year! It was the best of times...

John A. Arneaux plays "Richard III" at the Academy of Music, then mysteriously exits the American stage. His co-star, the actor Henri Strange, remains - and strives to create a Shakespeare theater for Philadelphia's Black audiences. The second half of a two-part story. Guest Voices John A. Arneaux: Aaron Bell Reporter: Bill Van Horn R. Henri Strange: Davon Johnson Young Woman: Journ...