Board Alley Theatre was an illegal theatre in Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

, Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

 in the late 18th-century. Also called the New Exhibition Room, it was located in Board Alley

Hawley Street (Boston)

Hawley Street is located in the Financial District of Boston, Massachusetts, between Milk and Summer Streets. Prior to 1799, it was called Bishop's Alley and briefly in the 1790s Board Alley.-17th century:...

 in the Financial District. Although some in town supported the theatre, others vehemently opposed it. Governor John Hancock

John Hancock

John Hancock was a merchant, statesman, and prominent Patriot of the American Revolution. He served as president of the Second Continental Congress and was the first and third Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts...

 forced it to close in June 1793.

History

The "New Exhibition Room" was created by supporters of theatre in Boston, who had in 1791 unsuccessfully attempted to repeal a law of 1750 outlawing theatrical performances. "It was clear that if Boston was to have a theatre it must be in evasion or defiance of the law. ... An association was accordingly formed with this end in view, consisting of Joseph Russell, Dr. Charles Jarvis, Gen. Henry Jackson

Henry Jackson (general)

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, on 19 October 1747, Henry Jackson was the youngest son of Joseph and Susannah Jackson. Before the War for Independence, he was an officer of the First Corps of Cadets in Boston, which was disbanded during the British occupation...

, Joseph Barrell

Joseph Barrell (merchant)

Joseph Barrell was a merchant in Boston, Massachusetts in the 18th century. During the American Revolution he owned ships commissioned as privateers, such as the Vengeance, ca.1779. In 1792 Barrell was "elected to the board" of Massachusetts branch of the newly established Bank of the United...

and Joseph Russell, Jr. was appointed to erect a building that should be a theatre in everything except in name."

Charles Stuart Powell served as manager. The building "had a pit, a row of boxes forming three sides of a square, and a gallery ... accommodating about 500 persons." Shows typically consisted of two separate dramatic numbers -- one serious, one comic -- interspersed with slack rope, singing, and/or dancing. To avoid unnecessary provocation of the law, performances were sometimes advertised as "moral lectures" rather than "theatre."

Events

• 1792, Oct. - "Tragical History of George Barnwell; or The London Merchant;" and "Mad Cap; or Lovers in Plenty."
• 1792, Oct. - "Venice Preserved; or, a Plot Discovered;" and "The Duenno; or, the Jew Outwitted."
• 1793, April- Performances by "Madames Douvallier and Placide."
• 1793, May - "Rosina: or, the Reapers;" and "Barnably Brittle: or, a Wife at her Wit's End;" and "The Four Brothers, or, Royal Clemency."
• 1793, June - "Gray's Elegy;" "The Evening Brush;" "Le Devin du Village," ("a very celebrated French opera, never yet performed here"); and "between the acts of the opera, 'The Dwarf Dance' by Mr. Powell. End of the opera, a diverting ballette, called, 'The Bear Hunters."

Further reading

• George Oberkirsh Seilhamer. "The Beginning at Boston." History of the American Theatre: New foundations. Philadelphia: Globe Printing House, 1891; p.13+
• Loren K. Ruff. Joseph Harper and Boston's Board Alley Theatre, 1792-1793. Educational Theatre Journal, Vol. 26, No. 1 (Mar., 1974), pp. 45-52.
• T. A. Milford. Boston's Theater Controversy and Liberal Notions of Advantage. New England Quarterly, Vol. 72, No. 1 (Mar., 1999), pp. 61-88.