A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Volume 4, Corye to Dynion: Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers, and Other Stage Personnel in London, ... Dictionary of Actors & Actresses, 1660-1800)

( Volumes three and four of this monumen­tal work include...)

Volumes three and four of this monumen­tal work include full entries for all such illustrious names as those of the Cibbers—Colley, Theophilus, and Susanna Maria—Kitty Clive, and Charlotte Charke, George Colman, the Elder, and the Younger, William Davenant, and De Loutherboug. But here also are full entries for dozens of important secondary figures and of minor ones whose stories have never been told, as well as a census (and at least a few recoverable facts) for even the most inconsiderable performers and servants of the theatres.   As in the previous volumes in this dis­tinguished series, the accompanying illus­trations include at least one picture of each subject for whom a portrait exists.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/080930693X/?tag=2022091-20

A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Volume 3, Cabanel to Cory: Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers, and Other Stage Personnel in London, ... Dictionary of Actors & Actresses, 1660-1800)

( Volumes three and four of this monumen­tal work include...)

Volumes three and four of this monumen­tal work include full entries for all such illustrious names as those of the Cibbers—Colley, Theophilus, and Susanna Maria—Kitty Clive, and Charlotte Charke, George Colman, the Elder, and the Younger, William Davenant, and De Loutherboug. But here also are full entries for dozens of important secondary figures and of minor ones whose stories have never been told, as well as a census (and at least a few recoverable facts) for even the most inconsiderable performers and servants of the theatres.   As in the previous volumes in this dis­tinguished series, the accompanying illus­trations include at least one picture of each subject for whom a portrait exists.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0809306921/?tag=2022091-20

A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Volume 13, Roach to H. Siddons: Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers, and Other Stage Personnel in London, ... Dictionary of Actors & Actresses, 1660-1800)

( Like the works already published, these latest volumes ...)

Like the works already published, these latest volumes of the Biographical Dictionary deal with theatre people of every ilk, ranging from dressers and one-performance actors to trumpeter John Shore (inventor of the tuning fork) and the incomparable Sarah Siddons. Also prominent is Susanna Rowson, a novelist, actress, and early female playwright. Although born into a British military family, Rowson often wrote plays that dealt with patriotic American themes and spent much of her career on the American stage. The theatrical jewel of these volumes is the "divine Sarah" Siddons: "She raised the tragedy to the skies," wrote William Hazlitt, and "embodied to our imagination the fables of mythology, of the heroic and dignified mortals of elder time." She endured much tragedy herself, including a crippling debilitating illness and the deaths of five of her seven children. Siddons played major roles in both comedy and tragedy, not the least of which was a performance as Hamlet.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0809315254/?tag=2022091-20

A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Volume 15, Tibbett to M. West: Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers, and Other Stage Personnel in London, ... Dictionary of Actors & Actresses, 1660-1800)

( A major project begun in 1973 reaches its conclusion wi...)

A major project begun in 1973 reaches its conclusion with the publication of volumes 15 and 16 of the Biographical Dictionary, a series considered "a reference work of the first order" by Theatre and Performing Arts Collections. Among performers highlighted in these last volumes is Catherine Tofts, a gifted singer whose popular acclaim was captured in lines by Samuel Phillips: "How are we pleas’d when beauteous Tofts appears, / To steal our Souls through our attentive Ears?’ / Ravish’d we listen to th’ inchanting Song, / And catch the falling Accents from her Tongue." The first singer of English birth to master the form of Italian opera, Tofts frequently won leading roles over native Italian singers. Her salary—£400 to £500 a season—was one of the highest in the theatre. Her popularity declined, however, as her demands for payment increased—a situation captured in an epigram Alexander Pope may have penned: "So bright is thy beauty, so charming thy song, / As had drawn both the beasts and their Orpheus along; / But such is thy avarice, and such is thy pride, / That the beasts must have starved, and the poets have died." John Vanbrugh, whose play The Relapse is ranked as one of the best comedies of the Restoration period, became a subordinate crown architect under Sir Christopher Wren in 1702. In 1703, Vanbrugh began plans for the Queen’s Theatre in the Haymarket, an enterprise endorsed by the Kit Cat Club (of which Vanbrugh was a member). Even though his lavish design was acoustically defective, restructuring helped correct the problem and the theatre eventually became the exclusive center for opera in London.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0809318024/?tag=2022091-20

David Garrick, director

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007DKVUO/?tag=2022091-20

The Richard Bebb Collection in the Garrick Club: A Catalogue of Figures, Sculptors and Paintings

(Richard Bebb, a professional actor for over fifty years, ...)

Richard Bebb, a professional actor for over fifty years, has built up a collection of one hundred and thirty-two theatrical figures, twenty-five pieces of sculpture and twenty-two paintings, watercolours, miniatures and wax reliefs which he has presented to the Garrick Club as a significant addition to its famous collection of paintings and theatre memorabilia. Though the Bebb figures consist predominantly of Staffordshire pottery - of which there are fifty-four examples - there is also ware from Derby, Royal Doulton and Worcester, Foreign factories are represented by royal Copenhagen, Sevres, Samson and Paris and Goebel. Exceptional is the group of seventeen figures of characters in Nigel Playfair's famous production of the Beggar's Opera that opened at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith in 1920. The characters are presented in the costumes that were designed by Claude Lovat Fraser. An index of Image Makers provides useful information about the various modellers, manufacturers and sculptors and there is also an Index of Plays and a Bibliography. KALMAN A. BURNIM is Fletcher Professor of Drama Emeritus, Tufts University; ANDREW WILTON is Keeper of the British Collection at Tate Britain.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0906290643/?tag=2022091-20

A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Volume 16, W. West to Zwingman: Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers, and Other Stage Personnel in London, ... Dictionary of Actors & Actresses, 1660-1800)

( A major project begun in 1973 reaches its conclusion wi...)

A major project begun in 1973 reaches its conclusion with the publication of volumes 15 and 16 of the Biographical Dictionary, a series considered "a reference work of the first order" by Theatre and Performing Arts Collections. Among performers highlighted in these last volumes is Catherine Tofts, a gifted singer whose popular acclaim was captured in lines by Samuel Phillips: "How are we pleas’d when beauteous Tofts appears, / To steal our Souls through our attentive Ears?’ / Ravish’d we listen to th’ inchanting Song, / And catch the falling Accents from her Tongue." The first singer of English birth to master the form of Italian opera, Tofts frequently won leading roles over native Italian singers. Her salary—£400 to £500 a season—was one of the highest in the theatre. Her popularity declined, however, as her demands for payment increased—a situation captured in an epigram Alexander Pope may have penned: "So bright is thy beauty, so charming thy song, / As had drawn both the beasts and their Orpheus along; / But such is thy avarice, and such is thy pride, / That the beasts must have starved, and the poets have died." John Vanbrugh, whose play The Relapse is ranked as one of the best comedies of the Restoration period, became a subordinate crown architect under Sir Christopher Wren in 1702. In 1703, Vanbrugh began plans for the Queen’s Theatre in the Haymarket, an enterprise endorsed by the Kit Cat Club (of which Vanbrugh was a member). Even though his lavish design was acoustically defective, restructuring helped correct the problem and the theatre eventually became the exclusive center for opera in London.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0809318032/?tag=2022091-20

Pictures in the Garrick Club: A Catalogue of the Paintings, Drawings, Watercolours and Sculpture Compiled and Written by Geoffrey Ashton

(A catalogue of over 1000 paintings, drawings, watercolour...)

A catalogue of over 1000 paintings, drawings, watercolours and sculpture that constitute the London Garrick Club's collection of British theatrical works of art.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0906290147/?tag=2022091-20

David Garrick: Director (Crosscurrents/Modern Critiques)

( The life of this actor, manager, play­wright, and eight...)

The life of this actor, manager, play­wright, and eighteenth-century gentle­man is here refracted through the volu­rninous correspondence and analyses of roles, plays, and performances in this, no doubt final, biography of David Garrick.   As the direct result of modern scholar­ship accessible only since the 1960s, it is now possible to appraise fully the life of this remarkable person who was born in Lichfield 19 February 1717, a child­hood friend of Samuel Johnson, who be­came the greatest English theatrical lu­minary who ever lived, and who when he died 20 January 1779 was mourned by the nation and eulogized by Dr. Johnson as one whose death “eclipsed the gaiety of nations.”   For twenty-nine years (1747–1776) Garrick managed Drury Lane theatre, caring passionately for its well-being. His own acting set the pace for the per­formances, his discipline carried it on, and his theatrical innovations attracted the audiences on which the lives, hopes, and families of some 140 actors, actress­es, singers, dancers, and others depend­ed. In addition, he wrote, adapted, or altered some 49 plays and wrote nearly 100 prologues.   What emerges from this big, new critical biography is a fully drawn por­trait of an eighteenth-century gentleman, with a wide range of acquaintances, elegant socially, morally, and personal­ly, and an engaging conversationalist with and respecter of women of mark and with his closest friends. He was also, as the evidence now shows, the solid link with his own age and the great dramatic artists of the past, from the Restoration playwrights to Massinger, Jonson, Shakespeare, and early English dram­atists.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0809306255/?tag=2022091-20

A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Volume 14, S. Siddons to Thynne: Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers, and Other Stage Personnel in London, ... Dictionary of Actors & Actresses, 1660-1800)

( Like the works already published, these latest volumes ...)

Like the works already published, these latest volumes of the Biographical Dictionary deal with theatre people of every ilk, ranging from dressers and one-performance actors to trumpeter John Shore (inventor of the tuning fork) and the incomparable Sarah Siddons. Also prominent is Susanna Rowson, a novelist, actress, and early female playwright. Although born into a British military family, Rowson often wrote plays that dealt with patriotic American themes and spent much of her career on the American stage. The theatrical jewel of these volumes is the "divine Sarah" Siddons: "She raised the tragedy to the skies," wrote William Hazlitt, and "embodied to our imagination the fables of mythology, of the heroic and dignified mortals of elder time." She endured much tragedy herself, including a crippling debilitating illness and the deaths of five of her seven children. Siddons played major roles in both comedy and tragedy, not the least of which was a performance as Hamlet.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0809315262/?tag=2022091-20

A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Volume 8, Hough to Keyse: Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers, and Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660-1800 ... Dictionary of Actors & Actresses, 1660-1800)

( Volume 8 dis­cusses, among others, the careers of Charl...)

Volume 8 dis­cusses, among others, the careers of Charles Incledon, the “English Ballad-Singer,” boxing champion of England, “Gentleman” John Jackson, and members of the famous Kemble family— Charles, Maria Theresa, Frances, Henry, John Philip, Priscilla, Elizabeth, Roger, and Stephen.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/080930919X/?tag=2022091-20

John Bell-Patron of British Theatrical Portraiture: A Catalog of the Theatrical Portraits in His Editions of Bell's Shakespeare and Bell's British Theatre

( For this sumptuously illustrated catalog, Kalman A. Bur...)

For this sumptuously illustrated catalog, Kalman A. Burnim—picture editor and compiler of the iconographies published in the sixteen-volume Biographical Dictionary—has selected more than 350 portraits from various editions of the John Bell publication Bell’s Shakespeare (including John Barker’s continuation of 1799–1800) and from Bell’s British Theatre (including George Cawthorn’s 1797 edition). Philip H. Highfill Jr. has furnished the introductory essay for the catalog. These are portraits of players in costume for their roles. Most are by James Roberts and Samuel De Wilde, who were among the leading painters of actors and actresses between 1770 and 1820. Richard Cosway, William Hamilton, Gilbert Stuart, and other painters also have work represented in the catalog. The beautifully detailed engraved plates are by James Thornthwaite, William Leney, Philippe Audinet, and others.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0809321238/?tag=2022091-20