- William Dunlap
:"This is the 18th century theatre designer. For other people see
Bill Dunlap ."William Dunlap (
1 February ,1766 -28 September ,1839 ) was a pioneer of the American theater. He was a producer, playwright, and actor, as well as a historian. He managed two of New York's earliest and most prominent theaters, the John Street Theatre (from 1796-98) and the Park Theatre (from 1798-1805). He was also an artist, despite losing an eye in childhood.He was born in
Perth Amboy New Jersey , the son of an army officer wounded atQuebec . In 1783, he produced a portrait ofGeorge Washington , now owned by theUnited States Senate , and later studied art underBenjamin West inLondon . [ [http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/art/artifact/Painting_31_00015.htm U.S. Senate: Art & History Home > Paintings > George Washington by George Dunlap ] ] After returning to America in 1787, he worked exclusively in the theater for 18 years, resuming painting out of economic necessity in 1805. By 1817, he was a full-time painter. [http://www.artnet.com/library/02/0240/T024057.asp]In his lifetime he produced more than sixty plays, most of which were adaptations or translations from French or German works. A few were original: these were based on American themes and had American characters.
Among his works were the following:
*"The Father" (1789)
*"Andre" (1798)
*"The Stranger" (1798)
*"False Shame" (1799)
*"The Virgin of the Sun" (1800)
*"Memoirs of George Frederick Cooke" (1813)
*"History of the American Theater", 2 vols. (1832)References
Wilmeth, Don B. and Christopher Bigsby, eds. "The Cambridge History of American Theatre, Volume I: Beginnings to 1870." Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
External links
* [http://www.wayneturney.20m.com/dunlapwilliam.htm William Dunlap]
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