richmond-theatre

The Richmond Theatre was the name of four theatres located in Richmond, Virginia, in the United States. The first theatre was originally established in 1786 as the Academy of Fine Arts and Sciences of the United States or Quesnay's Academy.

The first Richmond Theatre was originally intended to be not only a theatre, but a school, museum, and art gallery housed collectively under the name of the Academy of Fine Arts and Sciences of the United States. The idea for this organization originated with the French scholar and soldier Chevalier Alexandre-Marie Quesnay de Beaurepaire who had come to the United States in March 1777 to fight in the American Revolutionary War. Quesnay intended to create an American organization modeled after the French Academy of Sciences (also known as the National Institute of Sciences and Arts). After nearly a decade of advocacy by Quesnay, a three and a quarter acre plot of land was purchased for 300 pounds from John Turpin on May 20, 1786, through funds raised through subscription to Quesnay's Academy. This land was located at the brow of Shockoe Hill. At the time, the main road on Shockoe Hill did not extend to the property, and as part of the land sale agreement, Turpin paid for the extension of the road and the creation of Academy Square where Quesnay's Academy was to be constructed. The cornerstone of the building was laid by Richmond's Masonic Lodge No. 13 on June 24, 1786. The building's cornerstone was placed at the Northeast corner of the building. The front of the building was situated on what is now 12th street, and was located at what is now the intersection of 12th and Broad just north of Capitol Square. (37°32′20″N 77°25′48″W) The academy was built with a "barn-like wooden structure".

Quesnay's Academy (QA) opened on October 10, 1786, in a performance given by the Old American Company of Comedians under the management of Lewis Hallam Jr. and John Henry. Sources vary as to which work was performed on this date, with some sources claiming it was the opera Poor Soldier and others the play School for Scandal. Regardless, sources agree that the repertoire of Hallam and Henry's season in Richmond included the stage works Poor Soldier, School for Scandal, and Alexander the Great ; or , the Rival Queens. Quesnay's dream of an institution mirroring that of the French Academy of Sciences was short lived. Social prejudices against the morality of the theatre made operations of such an institution challenging, and he was forced to publicly make it clear that there was separation between the scholars studying at the QA and the visiting theatre troupes utilizing the QA's theatre. Quesnay himself taught dance classes at the academy, but by December 1887 Quesnay's Academy ceased operation.

Theatre managers Thomas Wade West and John Bignall took over the QA, and made significant alterations to the QA and its theatre. It was renamed the Richmond Theatre, and at this time Academy Square became known as Theatre Square. West and Bignall continued to operate the theatre until it was destroyed by fire on January 23, 1798. Quesnay's theatre building had a capacity of 1600 people The Virginia Ratifying Convention of 1788 was held there beginning on June 2 for three weeks, after having begun previously at a smaller structure at Cary and fourteenth streets then temporarily serving as Virginia's capitol building. Among the many individuals in attendance were James Madison, John Marshall, James Monroe, Edmund Pendleton, George Wythe, George Nicholas, Edmund Randolph, George Mason, Richard Henry Lee, and Patrick Henry.

The second Richmond Theatre was built on the same site as the first theatre, and was erected through the advocacy of John Marshall who was serving as Chief Justice of the United States at the time of the theatre's construction. Through Marshall's efforts, the funds to build this theatre were raised through subscription and construction on the theatre began in 1804. This second theatre was made from brick instead of wood and stood three stories high. It opened on January 25, 1806, and was referred to in the Richmond Enquirer as both the "New Theatre" and the "Richmond Theatre". It was financially profitable during its five-year history. The second Richmond Theatre was initially inhabited by the West and Bignall theatre company. One of the early plays staged at the theatre in 1806 included William Dunlap's English language version of Jean-Henri-Ferdinand Lamartelière's 1799 play Abelino ou le Grand Bandit (English: Abaellino, the Great Bandit), a work often misattributed to Friedrich Schiller. The theatre was then taken over by a company led by Thomas Abthorpe Cooper whose first appearance in Richmond was in the title role of William Shakespeare's Hamlet in April 1806. Cooper performed several more parts at the Richmond Theatre in the following months, among them Rolla in August von Kotzebue's The Virgin of the Sun; the gambler Beverly in Edward Moore's The Gamester; Pierre in Thomas Otway's Venice Preserv'd; and the title roles in several more Shakespeare plays, including Othello, Macbeth, and Richard III. Other works performed at the Richmond Theatre in 1806 included the plays Speed the Plough (1806) by Thomas Morton, The Irishman in London by William Macready the Elder, The Sailor's Daughter by Richard Cumberland; and the ballad opera The Devil to Pay by Charles Coffey and John Mottley.

Available at this venue:

• Wheelchair-accessible entrance
• Wheelchair-accessible seating
• Wheelchair-accessible toilet
• Wheelchair-accessible parking

Accessibility information supplied by Google Maps. Please contact the venue directly to confirm details for your visit.