biography
| name: |
Brown, William Henry
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (fl.1820s)
|
| biography:
| Theatre producer and playwright, born in the West Indies. Little is known of his origins except that he arrived in the USA as a seaman, and by 1821 was establishing the African Theatre to allow all-black casts to perform mainly plays from the white repertoire, including condensed versions of Shakespeare. He also staged a sketch that dealt with slavery and produced his own play, The Drama of King Shotaway (1823), evidently drawing on his own personal experience of the 1795 black Caribs' insurrection on the island of St Vincent. His theatre produced the first two notable African-American actors, James Hewlett and Ira Aldridge. He may also have founded a theatre in Albany, NY, but otherwise he passed into oblivion. |
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