Laura Keene - Career

Career

Keene made her professional debut on October 8, 1851, starring in Romeo and Juliet at the Theatre Royal in Richmond (near London). This was followed by performances at London's Royal Olympic Theatre and Royal Lyceum Theatre, including several months working under Madame Vestris. After less than a year performing in Britain, Keene accepted an offer from James William Wallack to go to New York City, and serve as the leading lady in the stock company at his successful theater.

She enjoyed great popularity during her time at Wallack's Theatre (September 20, 1852, through November 22, 1853). In order to have greater control over her career, she then entered into theater management. Keene leased the Charles Street Theater, in Baltimore, from December 24, 1953, to March 2, 1854, where she acted as manager, director and performer . This was followed by touring performances in California (April 6 through July 29, 1854), in Australia (October 23, 1854 through January 1855), and again in California (April 9 through October 4, 1855). During the first stint in California, she spent a month as the manager and lessee of the Union Theatre in San Francisco (from June 29 through July 29, 1854).

Upon returning to New York City, Keene leased the Metropolitan Theatre, remodeled it, renamed it Laura Keene’s Varieties, and served as manager, director and star performer from December 23, 1855 through June 21, 1856. She planned to continue at this location, but a rival theater owner, William Burton, purchased the building, and moved his own operation there. (It was renamed Burton’s New Theatre, and then the Winter Garden.)

At this point, she lined up investors, along with an architect who specialized in theaters, and a new theater was constructed to her specifications. Named Laura Keene’s Theatre, it opened on November 18, 1856. Keene exercised complete control, managing, directing, and starring at this theater for seven seasons, through May 8, 1863.

After deciding to give up her own theater, Keene continued as manager and star of a company which toured the United States for most of the next ten years. She also served as manager of the Chestnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia, from September 20, 1869, through March 25, 1870. Her final performance was on July 4, 1873, while touring in northern Pennsylvania.

Stage entertainment turned over quickly in that era, with few productions exceeding a dozen performances, but Keene bucked those odds. An 1857 show called "The Elves" ran for a record 50 performances. Moreover, 1860 was to prove itself an important year for her theater and American drama as well. On March 29, she premiered Dion Boucicault's The Colleen Bawn, which ran for six weeks until the end of the season on May 12; the highlight of this play was the creation of an ocean island on stage in a scene which culminated with the hero diving into the ocean to save the colleen bawn Eily O'Connor. (Betting on the play's success, Boucicault took The Colleen Bawn to London, where it opened on September 10, 1860 and ran for 230 performances, becoming the first long run in the history of English theater.) In November 1860, Keene premiered the musical The Seven Sisters, which featured extravagant sets and ran for 253 performances, an astonishing total for the time.