Daily Calendars THE   ADELPHI   THEATRE   CALENDAR A Record of Dramatic Performances at a Leading Victorian Theatre
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Contents

• Daily Calendar: Introduction

• Daily Calendars: 1806-1900

Daily Calendar: Introduction

Users of the Calendar should understand that the Adelphi, and the Sans Pareil before it, like all other theatres of their time, operated on a repertory system, under which a number of plays and other pieces were performed--normally several on any given night--in alternation with one another, over the weeks and months of the season.  As a result, the bill changed from night to night, reflecting a managerial policy in which variety and its attraction for paying customers took precedence.  When some piece or other proved to be sufficiently popular, however, it was likely to be repeated on succeeding nights; if not every night, then frequently, for as long as it remained in favor with audiences.  Achieving a long run was the hope of every management, even though additional pieces were kept in readiness--and often mounted even while a long or moderate run was in process.  In a repertory theatre, success in the form of repeated performance occurred within the context of constant novelty, which itself spelled success of another kind.  As long as patrons continued to frequent the theatre, it was a combination that worked.  Only as the century moved toward its end did the long run become the norm, but even then a second or third piece was often added.

Given these circumstances, a calendar that attempted to set out the full details of every performance would rapidly become wasteful of space and overly consumptive of the user's time.  The Adelphi Daily Calendar is therefore designed to incorporate a large amount of variable information in an efficient format, easy to read and sparing of space.  The editors of the present Calendar have adapted the basic presentation of information implemented in the London daily calendar for the previous period, The London Stage 1660-1800 (for a full citation see the Bibliography), but have introduced a pair of important innovations and have provided much additional information.  The Adelphi Calendar adapts the previous calendar's "laddering" system, in which full cast and other details are given only when a piece is first performed, under the new rubric First Night Cast; thereafter, for subsequent performances, only the changes in cast are recorded.  The first of the two innovations is the inclusion of a Reference Cast, printed immediately below the First Night Cast.  The Reference Cast is a listing of the primary or predominant performers of each role, irrespective of whether they are the same as or different from the First Night Cast.  Then, for subsequent performances, only the changes in cast from the Reference Cast for that particular performance are given.  The second innovation is the addition of an explicit tracking system whereby the entry always includes a reference to the date of the first performance of the piece, the previous performance, and the next performance, thus enabling the user to track performances of the piece forwards and backwards throughout the season with ease.

Take, for example, the calendar entry for Tuesday, 5 March 1861, marking the one hundred and fiftieth performance of Dion Boucicault's Irish play The Colleen Bawn; or, The Brides of Garryowen. It is the second piece on the bill:

2) The Colleen Bawn; or, The Brides of Garryowen (150)

Performances first 10 Sep 1860, previous 4 Mar 1861, next 6 Mar 1861

Cast as reference cast (10 Sep 1860)

BUT Kathleen Creagh: Miss Aldridge

Under the rubric Performances the laddering system points to the opening performance on 10 September of the previous year; the performance previous to this present one, on 4 March; and the next performance, on 6 March.  There has been a change in cast in the current performance, for 5 March, however: the role of Kathleen Creagh is to be played by Miss Aldridge (taking over, as we may discover by looking back at the Reference Cast, for Miss Hayman).  All other roles are as played in the listing in the Reference Cast, printed (for the user's ease of reference) along with the opening night's cast in the entry for 10 September 1860.

In this system of entry and reference, continuity is given precedence, while at the same time, change is highlighted and made easy to identify.  The insertion of the simple word BUT, entirely in upper case, makes it easy to search for and find any cast changes.  For example, following the forward pointer for next performance in each calendar entry for The Colleen Bawn, it can be determined that Miss Aldridge continued to perform the role of Kathleen Creagh through the end of the season, in mid-July.  Other alterations in the source, such as the addition of other roles or their omission, are indicated by ADDS or OMITS.

Complementary to this method of setting out nightly performance information, every season has a section entitled Pieces Performed and Summary Cast Lists, where the user interested in a listing of all the pieces performed that season (or in one of them in particular) and all the performers in those pieces (or in one performer in particular) can find them listed in summary form.  To continue with our example of Boucicault, under the entry in Pieces Performed for The Colleen Bawn we may see that Miss Hayman played the role of Kathleen Creagh for 148 performances before Miss Aldridge took it over and continued for an additional 83, until the last performance of the season, on July 13. 

Additional information in the Daily Calendar entry presents a fuller record of the composition and performance of the piece.  A running count of performances of each piece is tallied in parentheses after the title.  The basic genre (drama, farce, comedy, and so on, as determined by the editor) and the genre as described in the bill or other source are given, along with the number of acts or other divisions in the piece, if the information is available.  Comments on the title, the cast, and the performance are added, from information provided in the source or as a result of editorial research.  And the name of the author is added, if known, since it seldom appears in the bill itself.

Finally, source information for the Calendar entry is briefly indicated in the top right corner of the entry.  On the first line the date indicated on the source is given.  This date may be different from the date of the entry itself, in the case of a source whose information spans more than one date.  On the second line is indicated the type of source, whether a playbill, a review in a newspaper or journal, or some other information.  On the third line the library or other institution that holds the source is indicated.  Standard library designations are used wherever possible; for example, NN , the source for a playbill covering the date of Tuesday, 5 March 1861,refers to The New York Public Library.  (See the list of Symbols Used in the Calendar: Repositories and Publications, on the Editors' Page.)

Daily Calendars: 1806-1900

Thank you for visiting this site. Copyright © 1988, 1992, 2012 by Alfred L. Nelson, Gilbert B. Cross, Joseph Donohue. Originally published by Greenwood Press as Sans Pareil Theatre 1806-1819, Adelphi Theatre 1819-1900:  An Index to Authors, Titles and Performers.  Westport, Connecticut, 1988, 1992.

The Adelphi Theatre Calendar revised, reconstructed and amplified.  Copyright © 2012.  This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License, with the exception of graphics from The Clip Art Book, edited by Gerard Quinn and published by Crescent in 1990.  These images are reproduced in accord with the publishers' note, which states "The Clip Art Book is a new compilation of illustrations that are in the public domain.  The individual illustrations are copyright free and may be reproduced without permission or payment.  However, the selection of illustrations and their layout is the copyright of the publisher, so that one page or more may not be photocopied or reproduced without first contacting the publishers."