Illustration 1 Actors and Actresses 123
Illustration 2 Musicians and Singers 241
Illustration 3 Bar Chart 1: Days Open 414
Illustration 4 Bar Chart 2: Genre 416
Illustration 5 Bar Chart 3: New Titles 418
Illustration 6 Bar Chart 4: Performances 420
Illustration 7 Bar Chart 5: Average Staff per Day 422
Illustration 8 Bar Chart 6: Average Titles per Day 424
Illustration 9 Bar Chart 7: Female Performers 426
Illustration 10 Bar Chart 8: Male Performers 428
Illustration 11 Bar Chart 9: Performers 430
Illustration 12 Bar Chart 10: Titles 432
Illustration 13 Bar Chart 11: Percent Female 434
Illustration 14 Bar Chart 12: Percent Male 436
Illustration 15 Iconography 455
Book 1
General Introduction
We completed this revision of the Adelphi Calendar in December 2016. Although much of the data remains substantially unchanged from the previous version, where possible, errors have been corrected. The graphics section has been greatly expanded by the systems analyst, Theodore Seward, who purchased and digitized illustrations of Adelphi productions found mostly in the Illustrated London News. These images represent the only record of plays never likely to be performed again, and the reviews provide insights into pieces and performers—many long-vanished from stage history.
There are two versions of the data: "Online" and "Book." Both contain the same information, and every file has a table of contents for navigation, and, because of their digital nature, all segments of the Adelphi Calendar (Online or Book) may be searched using the browser's "Find" command.
The Book format is for scholars who wish to download material in conformity with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
It is available in two forms of Microsoft Word (docx and doc), in a portable document format (Adobe Acrobat PDF), and designated to help students of the Sans Pareil/Adelphi's history to select, copy, and manipulate data in many ways.
There are fourteen books in all.
Book 1 contains an overview of the contents of all volumes in the book version. It contains summaries of the contents of each book. There is a brief history of the Adelphi Calendar Project and the names of its two remaining senior editors. Next come acknowledgements and dedications followed by names of all the editors and the period for which each was responsible.
Seven major indexes are included: (1) Authors and Titles (2) Actors and Actresses (3) Composers, Music and Song (4) Musicians and Singers (5) Dance, Entertainment, and Spectacle (6) Theatre Management and Back Stage Personnel and (7) Bibliography:
Authors and Titles: Entries are authors' names and titles (the latter are cross-referenced to their creators). The word "author" is used broadly to indicate the creator of a piece or one who made a major contribution to it. Entries consist of a surname followed by given name(s) and function—author, composer, etc. Choreographers and composers of full-length pieces are included in this index. Under the author's name, the user will find a list of all his or her pieces played at the Adelphi and their dates of performance. The majority of plays had a main and a subtitle. Sometimes the latter was billed without the main title, so a cross-reference system has been devised.
Actors and Actresses: Includes the names of every actor and actress who played at the Sans Pareil/Adelphi between the 1806 and 1899 seasons. Wherever possible the editors have attempted to provide a full entry—title (Miss, Mrs., Mons, Mlle., etc.), first name, middle initial, and surname. The title "Mr." is never used, but foreign equivalents and the word "Master" are employed throughout. On many occasions, editors amplified names found in the bills. In the calendar itself, though not in the index, interpolated information is bracketed.
Many names have been expanded. "Miss S. Booth" becomes "Miss S[arah] Booth." Some actresses married during their careers. If they then chose to be billed under their husband's surname, the entry is expanded to include his first name, if known. If not, their given names precede the husband's last name. Maiden and married names have been cross-indexed only if an actress played under both.
Composers, Music, and Song: A single alphabetical list by title and composer. Under each composer's name, all his or her pieces are listed. The Adelphi, born as the Sans Pareil, had a license by 1809 to perform musical entertainments, pantomimes, and burlettas. Music accompanied action; songs were included, but, at first, there was no agreement on how many of them constituted a burletta. What is, perhaps, most surprising about the music at the Adelphi, an "illegitimate" theatre with origins in song and dance, was the sheer amount of classical music included in performances.
Musicians and Singers: Throughout the century, a great deal of music and song was performed at the theatre, ranging from popular songs to classical pieces by premier composers. Such information is indexed under "Composers, Music and Song." In the case of operas and operettas, composers will be listed in the "Authors and Titles" index, and performers will be found in the "Actors and Actresses" index. However, when music and song occur within or between pieces, performers are listed here. Names are followed by two symbols—s for singer, and m for musician. Following the symbol is the season when the performance was given.
Dance, Entertainment, and Spectacle: Dance was a prominent feature of productions in the early days of the theatre. The first index is of performers. Each name is followed by a symbol: d dancer, e entertainer, s spectacle, dc dance creator, ec entertainment creator, sc spectacle creator.
After the index of performers, come three indexes. The first lists all dances, their creators, performers, seasons, and dates of performance. The second and third indexes are of entertainment and spectacle, which are sometimes hard to differentiate. As with dance, the categories are Description, Creators, Performers, Season, and Date. Creators are few and far between, but a reasonable number of performers was located. Entertainments range from addresses to monologues and from calculating dogs to celebrated Parisian monkeys. Spectacle is a very loose division, containing some of what other editors considered to be entertainment. However, these data are available and are given here.
Theatre Management and Back Stage Personnel: Front-of-House and backstage personnel are the two basic divisions of this index. The first of these is an alphabetical listing of all those who "governed" the house and those who toiled backstage. In this index, we indicate, in parentheses, each person's function: printers, stage mechanics, directors of music, etc., and years in service.
The second index is an alphabetical listing of all personnel by theatrical function, preceded by the years of service. Regularizing of job titles has taken place, reducing them to about forty: however, the daily calendars retain the wording found on the bills.
Summary counts and bar charts of titles and genres: Gives statistical analyses of various features and productions. The reader is able to track the gradual fall in the number of pieces performed nightly, to follow the changes on genres, and compare male and female participation in all aspects of the Sans Pareil/Adelphi.
Bibliography: No attempt was made to compile an exhaustive list of books and journals. The "Books and Other Published Materials" includes only those works directly mentioned in the calendar and indexes or found to be of particular value in our researches.
Book 2 contains seasonal digests. Each of them presents an overall "feel" for the ninety-nine seasons the theatre was open. If possible, there are plot summaries, critiques of the pieces and/or players, and scenery descriptions. Editors seek to "sum up" the season as a whole. Anything significant, such as a change in management, or Dion Boucicault's invention of the royalty system in 1860, or the introduction of electrical lighting early in 1882, is in the digests.
Books 3 and 4 are devoted to seasonal summaries. These are generated by the computer and are similar in appearance. They contain, inter alia, three main indexes: author/title, actor/role and summary cast lists. The last of these gives all actors by name, the roles they played, and a "window date" of the first and last time they appeared.
Books 5 through 13 are daily calendars. Book 5 has all those of the Sans Pareil Theatre. Books 6 through 13 each contains a decade of Adelphi calendars.
Book 14 is the All-inclusive Index. This guide indexes all individuals named in the Calendar alphabetically. They are followed by the same information: responsibility (author, performer, designer, front of house, etc.) and season. Should the individual be a performer (actor, singer, musician), the main entry will begin with a role (or activity such as conductor, entertainer, dancer, etc.) followed by the title, genre, and dates of performance.
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