News

March 26th, 1768: Easter Holidays

A Notice to Fans of the London Stage Blog: Last time of posting ’till Easter Holidays! For this #theaterthursday, we bring to you the event of March 26th, 1768, wherein Covent Garden Theatre advertised that the show that night would be their “Last time of performing till Easter Holidays.” Covent Garden was not alone in their planned repose. It was, in fact, tradition for public playhouses to close in observation of Holy Week during the week leading up to Easter. We here at the London Stage will be following suit and taking it easy this Thursday; for, while the show must go on, everyone needs a break now and then. So, without further ado, goodbye and see you next week when we’ll be returning to our usual #theaterthursday posting!

March 19th, 1675: The Playgoing of Nell Gwyn

MOST exciting news fans of the London Stage: on this very day, 1675, Nell Gwyn (that’s right, THE Nell Gwyn) attended a performance by the Duke’s Company at Dorset Garden Theatre! How lucky for the rest of the audience, sharing space with Nell Gwyn!!! Wait— did someone just ask “who’s Nell Gwyn?” A 17th-Century Starlet Nell Gwyn by Simon Verelst oil on canvas, feigned oval, circa 1680. Licensed from National Portrait Gallery, London, under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License Like modern times, the Restoration era had its fair share of celebrities. Certain actors and actresses reached the level of fame wherein their personal lives became the subject of public interest and spectacle. For this #theaterthursday, allow us to introduce you to one such celebrity: Eleanor (“Nell”) Gwyn. To begin, allow us to call your attention back to our previous blog post about Orange-Women. Remember those fruit vendors of Restoration playhouses? Well, in Cinderella-like fashion,... Read More

LSDB in the News: KGW-Portland Investigates

Earlier this week, I sat down for an interview with Evan Watson, an investigative reporter at KGW-8 (NBC Portland) who has been into the impacts of NEH cuts on humanities projects in Oregon. His piece ran on the evening news yesterday: A longer article went online this morning, as well: Evan Wilson for KGW news: DOGE used ChatGPT to cut humanities grants, affecting Oregon researchers and museums Huge thanks to Molly Blancett and Angela Seydel from the University Communications office for their help coordinating interview logistics, and to Professor Julie Weise from History, who sent Evan my way for this story — and who has also been doing an enormous amount of work to connect the people affected by these terminations with one another and to identify avenues for education and advocacy. Also, I have to say this: I totally understand it’s useful shorthand to say that I “created” the London Stage... Read More

March 12th, 1763: A Notice from Management

The theatrical season of 1762-1763 was a fraught one for the London stage. In January, management at both of the main public playhouses moved to abolish a longstanding practice of selling half-priced tickets to those arriving after the start of the mainpiece’s third act. Audiences protested the change and their ultimately successful efforts became known as the “Half-Price Riots.” According to Heather McPherson, “[t]he 1763 Half-Price Riots at Drury Lane and Covent Garden illustrate the precariousness of the social contract between management and the public.” But the attempted change in ticket pricing was not the only managerial attempt at altering audiences’ relationship with the stage that the 1762-1763 season saw… Riot at Covent Garden Theatre, in 1763. Print made by: Anonymous © The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license. On this very day of March 12, 1763, The Public Advertiser published the following notice: “As... Read More

LSDB in the News: Lawsuit Update

Over the weekend, the New York Times ran an article by Jennifer Schuessler with the headline “When DOGE Unleashed ChatGPT on the Humanities” (gift link). The piece covers the latest findings from the discovery phase in an ongoing lawsuit filed by scholarly and professional organizations challenging the mass termination of NEH grants — including one to our team — last spring. The grant termination letter, an exact copy of those received by thousands of other NEH grantees at the same time, notified us that our project “no longer effectuates agency priorities.” (Image created using CanvaAI.) Among the many revealing findings were spreadsheets DOGE staffers created by feeding grant descriptions from the NEH’s public website into a chatbot with the prompt: “Does the following relate at all to D.E.I.? Respond factually in less than 120 characters.” Evidently, any project that focused on the history, language, culture, or experiences of any group other than white men... Read More

March 5th, 1733: Orange-Women, Penknives, and Coffeehouses

We may be over the moon for our first #theaterthursday of March, but today we come to you to report the grave news that, on this day in London Stage history “… a great Disorder happen’d amongst the Footmen” of Drury Lane—specifically, a stabbing. The drama that unfolded may not have happened onstage, but it is worth talking about here for what it shows us about women, work, and public space in eighteenth-century London. [Content warning: this post contains non-graphic depictions of non-lethal violence, including a discussion of possible sexual harassment and/or assault] London newspaper The Daily Advertiser reported that on March 5th, 1733, a woman who worked at Drury Lane was “[met] with some Affront,” as she left the theater. She then “drew out her Penknife, and stabb’d a Chairman and two Gentlemen’s Servants, therewith, before it could be wrench’d from her.” This act of violence may appear simple: the woman was, in... Read More