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Welcome to the Adelphi Theatre Calendar
(A Project of The London Stage 1800-1900)

Contents

• Founding and Early Years

• Later Developments

• For details, contact the editors

• How To Use These Pages

Founding and Early Years

The London Stage 1800-1900:  A Documentary Record and Calendar of Performances was founded in the mid-seventies by Joseph Donohue (University of Massachusetts Amherst) and James Ellis (Mount Holyoke College) to organize and collect information about a variety of theatrical and theatre-related activities occurring in London over the course of the Nineteenth Century.  This effort was to be centered on the compilation of daily calendars of performance for "major" and "minor" theatres--a distinction that grew increasingly arbitrary as time went on.  The general purpose was to gather and make this information available to theatre scholars and to all who might be interested in the subject.

The approach of the project was modeled on the previously published calendar The London Stage 1660-1800, ed. William Van Lennep et al. (1960-1968), but broadly adapted to address the phenomenal growth of theatres and audiences over the course of the Nineteenth Century and the development of computer databases.  The first challenge was to compile a Handbook for Compilers, an in-house publication privately issued in 1976 and based on the implementation of computer mainframe software.  The aim of the Handbook, as stated on the first page, was "to provide editors and compilers of the London Stage 1800-1900 Calendar with a precise and comprehensive guide to the extent, method, and format of transcription.  The amount of detailed specificity seems unavoidable, given the scale of the project, the number and geographical spread of the contributing editors, and the necessity of preparing the collected information in machine-readable form."  In seventy-six pages plus appendices the editors bravely essayed the great task before them.  (James Ellis later stepped aside.)

The first major project initiated by The London Stage 1800-1900 program emerged at a conference on the Nineteenth Century Theatre held at the University of Massachusetts in 1974.  Gilbert B. Cross and Alfred L. Nelson, both of Eastern Michigan University, proposed to compile a nearly century-long Calendar of the Adelphi Theatre, beginning in 1806, when the theatre started life as the Sans Pareil, through to 1900.  Nelson and Cross, acting as Co-General Editors, assembled a team of historians as contributing editors.  Employing the London Stage Handbook for Compilers, they began issuing elements of the calendar in preliminary form in a printed work published in loose-leaf binders, later augmented by microfiche, by Greenwood Press, as the Sans Pareil Theatre/ Adelphi theatre:  A Chronology and Index.  The Greenwood Press series culminated in Alfred L. Nelson and Gilbert B. Cross, gen. eds., Theatre Royal, Adelphi:  A Daily Calendar of Performances 1806-1900, Part I:  1806-1850; Part II:  1850-1900.  Westport, CT: Greenwood Press; Part I, 1990; Part II, 1993.  Well before this time Theodore J. Seward Jr., a student at Eastern Michigan University, had joined the Adelphi project as Systems Analyst.

Eventually the Adelphi Theatre Calendar became a self-sufficient database operation, housed on the Eastern Michigan computer.  After the much regretted loss of Alfred Nelson, Gilbert Cross went on serving as General Editor of the project while Theodore Seward continued to maintain and improve the database and Joseph Donohue continued in an advisory capacity.

Later Developments

A recent change in web hosting circumstances has prompted the editors to undertake a revision to the Adelphi Theatre Calendar.  This revision, limited in scope, has left intact all the data and calculations of activity itself: cast lists, number and dates of performance, and other related information.

The most important change has been one suggested by the Calendar's systems engineer, Theodore Seward, now of the Northrop Grumman Company (Seward's valued contributions have been crucial to the completion and success of the project).  The change he proposed was to add a "book" version of the Calendar to the web site.  This addition is not to be confused with the early, two-volume calendar issued in a ring-binder published by Greenwood Press, which never contained a daily calendar of performance (and is long out of print).  The proposed virtual book format is designed to permit downloading parts of the Calendar in coherent and convenient forms.  It comprises thirteen volumes divided by history and focus, which makes it easy to access and download.  (For details about the availability and use of information, please see the Copyright statement.)

For example, in recent years there has developed great interest in Jane M. Scott, who founded and ran the Sans Pareil Theatre from its beginnings in 1807 to 1819.  Scott's extensive contributions on and off stage could be assembled into a "book" and treated separately as a stand-alone historical record.  Scholars interested in researching her career need only concern themselves with the first three volumes and volume V, which contains the daily calendar of each season.  Other researchers, focusing on day by day activity at the Adelphi, have accessible to them seven volumes of data, conveniently divided by decade.  For those seeking an overview of theatrical activity during a season, summaries are collected in volumes III and IV.

It is the editors' hope that improved accessibility, broad distribution, and low cost will encourage users to download information directly from the book version and perhaps self-publish it on Kindle, Sony, Nook, or other convenient user-oriented media.  Our copyright restrictions allow for and encourage uses of this kind.

While we have currently no reason to be apprehensive about the Calendar's future, there is always the possibility circumstances may change.  This revised version is hosted by the University of Massachusetts Amherst at

http://www.umass.edu/AdelphiTheatreCalendar/

There is a link at Eastern Michigan University's English Department under "Publications."  Users of the Adelphi Calendar should make a point of searching the Web for other installations.  The current editors, who have now completed their task and are not consistently able to watch over the project closely, realize that it is wise and prudent to have more than one copy of a database of this size and complexity available.  We encourage free hosting by any reputable educational institution.

For details, contact the editors

How To Use These Pages

At the top and bottom of each page there is a horizontal menu where you may select the sections you wish to view.  At the top, you may also select the thumbnail images as well:

	Daily Calendar	For 1806-1900: Seasonal Digests Daily Calendar Authors, Composers Actors and Roles Pieces Performed Summary Cast Lists Music, Songs, Dances
	Home	Welcome to the Adelphi Theatre Calendar: Founding and Early Years Later Developments For details, contact the editors How To Use These Pages
	Editorial Page	Dedication Acknowledgments The Adelphi Calendar Project: Editors Contributing Editors Symbols Used in the Calendar: Repositories and Publications Abbreviations Used in this Work: General Information from Sources Production Credits Commentary on Performers Source Designations Time Notations Parts in Piece Table of Special Abbreviations (Alphabetical list) Dramatic Genres and Their Abbreviations (Alphabetized by full name) Dramatic Genres and Their Abbreviations (Alphabetized by abbreviations)
	Authors & Titles	Cross References of: Authors Composers Arrangers Choreographers Titles of Pieces
	Actors & Actresses	Actors & Actresses
	Musicians	Musicians, Singers, and Dancers
	Management	Theatre Management: Front-of-House, Functionaries
	Bibliography	Works Cited
	Book Download	Volumes of Calendar in Word & Adobe Formats
	Theatre Research	Resources for Theatre Research
	Adelphi Today	Contemporary Websites

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."