Too Soon the Curtain Fell
Mum had torn the November sheet from the calendar and now December
was really here. This meant Christmas was coming and with it brought
the
daily practising for the school concert.
The play, “Santa Forgot To Set His Alarm Clock” was
going to be our masterpiece. Our stage was the space between the wood
stove and the blackboard. The curtains were an assortment of bed sheets
that the students brought from home and fastened with safety pins to a
wire that had been
strung from wall to wall.
By the way, back in 1789 the long room in Mallard’s Tavern in Saint
John was transformed into a theatre for the first dramatic performance
in New
Brunswick. The cast of amateurs demonstrated the desire of the
colonists, most of them having arrived here in 1783, for a cultural
life of the kind they had left behind in New England. Circumstances may
have dictated that these settlers carve out homes and businesses for
themselves from a wilderness but they also wanted to promote whatever
they could to enrich their labour-filled lives. Even Colonel Edward
Winslow journeyed from his home at Kingsclear by horse and sleigh to be
present. Two of the actors in the 1789 season were Jonathan and Stephen
Sewell, sons of Jonathan Sewell, formerly attorney-general of
Massachusetts.
The evening of February 3, 1809, saw the opening of the Drury Lane Theatre, the first building in Saint John to be used solely as a theatre. The story of its erection is one of a spirit of adventure, persistence and co-operation between gentleman of the garrison at Fort Howe and the city.
In 1829 some folk in our city did not take well to the theatre and a volley of protests from the press and pulpit which reached even to the Mayor’s office and to the Grand Jury.
By 1878, architects had completed drawings for a new opera house to be erected on the site of the old Dockrill Hall on Union Street. While the brick walls of the Opera House were rising in 1890, three other buildings were being refurbished as theatres.
Too Soon the Curtain Fell - A History of Theatre in Saint John (1789 - 1900) by Mary Elizabeth Smith, published in 1981, provides us with a glimpse into the type of entertainment our Saint John ancestors enjoyed. You can view this book at several research institutions.
The notes at the end of the book raise the curtain on many sources that will prove useful to the family researcher.
By the way, you will also find information on theatres, at the
Library and Archives of the New Brunswick Museum, Douglas Avenue, Saint
John.
The book - Too
Soon the Curtain Fell - A History of Theatre in Saint John (1789 - 1900)
by Mary Elizabeth Smith is available from Ruby at rmcusack@nbnet.nb.ca
* *
Query 933
Oates - Hall - Upton: I am seeking
information on Thomas Oates, a British Home Child from Glasgow,
Scotland. He worked
in the Woodstock, New Brunswick area from 1928-1932. Employers
were
Mr. Hall and Mr. Upton. Migration agency was the Cossar Farm, Lower
Gagetown.
Thomas was aged 15 years on arrival and 19 on his departure to Scotland
in1932.
-Linda Oates, 23 Twenty-second Ave., Brighton, Queensland, 4017,
Australia. E-mail to john.craven@orica.com
