Wednesday, December 12, 2018

1755 Marylanders read of a new London school theater for Christmas Plays

1733 The Laughing Audience from an etching by William Hogarth (1697-1764) detail adapted by Edward Matthew Ward (1816-1879)

British American colonists were at least aware of the English tradition of staging plays at Christmas. In 1755, the Maryland Gazette reported that the boys at the new Westminster School in London were to have, in addition to a hall "a Theatre to act their Christmas plays in."