Theatre. By the Old American Company. On Friday Evening, the 12th of February, will be presented a celebrated Comic Opera, called, Inkle and Yarico ... Previous to the Entertainment, A New Federal Overture, by Mr. Hewitt
- Broadside. 17x10-1/4 inches
- New York , 1796
New York, 1796. Broadside. 17x10-1/4 inches. Old repaired tear, minor foxing and toning, tipped to a larger sheet. Broadside. 17x10-1/4 inches. The Old American Company was the first professional American theater company, touring throughout the colonies. Founded in 1752 as the Hallam Company, after its founder William Hallam, after the Revolution the company was renamed the Old American Company and, at the time of this performance was led by John Hodgkinson. In 1798, the company took residence at the Park Theatre in New York.
This headline performance by the company featured a staging of the musical comedy Inkle and Yarico (music by Samuel Arnold and libretto by George Colman the Younger). Inkle, an English trader, is shipwrecked in the West Indies, and survives with the help of Yarico, an Indian maiden. They fall in love, but when Inkle returns to his civilization, he plans to sell Yarico into slavery to recover his financial losses while he marries a woman, Narcissa, who will give him the social standing he wants. In the end, Narcissa marries another, and Inkle remains with Yarico.
Besides the performance by the Old American Company of Inkle and Yarico, the night included a performance of a two-act comedy by David Garrick, titled The Guardian. Notably, among the cast members of this performance, playing the role of Young Clackett, was Joseph Jefferson (1774-1832), the first in a series of three generations of American actors of that name. Between the two pieces was a performance of Hewitt's Federal Overture, which would be printed by early American music publisher Benjamin Carr several times between 1794 and 1796 (see Sonneck, p. 50).
An unrecorded early New York theater broadside. AAS holds a facsimile the present example.
This headline performance by the company featured a staging of the musical comedy Inkle and Yarico (music by Samuel Arnold and libretto by George Colman the Younger). Inkle, an English trader, is shipwrecked in the West Indies, and survives with the help of Yarico, an Indian maiden. They fall in love, but when Inkle returns to his civilization, he plans to sell Yarico into slavery to recover his financial losses while he marries a woman, Narcissa, who will give him the social standing he wants. In the end, Narcissa marries another, and Inkle remains with Yarico.
Besides the performance by the Old American Company of Inkle and Yarico, the night included a performance of a two-act comedy by David Garrick, titled The Guardian. Notably, among the cast members of this performance, playing the role of Young Clackett, was Joseph Jefferson (1774-1832), the first in a series of three generations of American actors of that name. Between the two pieces was a performance of Hewitt's Federal Overture, which would be printed by early American music publisher Benjamin Carr several times between 1794 and 1796 (see Sonneck, p. 50).
An unrecorded early New York theater broadside. AAS holds a facsimile the present example.