William Macready
William Charles Macready ( March 3, 1793 in London, † April 27, 1873 in Cheltenham ) was an English actor.
Life
Macready was the son of a tenant several smaller theater. His education was Macready at the school in Rugby. Then Macready should study at Oxford University. Through financial Schrierigkeiten his father's shattered this and he joined the theater company of his father. On 7 June 1810, he was at the Municipal Theatre of Birmingham as Orestes in the tragedy "The distrest Mother" ( Ambrose Philips) 's debut; an adaptation of Jean Racine's Andromaque.
On the occasion of a dispute about the financial situation in 1814 Macready left his father's ensemble and was then committed to a theater to Dublin. MacReady's drama was based on models such as Edmund Kean John Philip Kemble, but very soon found to their own distinctive style.
His artistic breakthrough was achieved by Macready 1818 in the title role of Isaac Pocock's Rob Roy; a dramatization of Walter Scott's novel of the same name.
Later Macready moved to the Municipal Theatre of Edinburgh and in 1816 he was engaged by the Royal Opera House ( Covent Garden). From 1823 he was seen at the Drury Lane Theatre. This year, Macready married in London Catherine Frances Atkins and had several children with her.
In addition to important pieces of Shakespeare Macready also appeared in other pieces; For example, he was seen on May 11, 1825 the title role of James Sheridan Knowles ' William Tell. In the spring of 1826 Macready undertook a tour to the USA in 1828 and a longer tour to Paris.
Between 1837 and 1839 he was entrusted with the management of Macready Covent Garden and in 1841 he spent two years as the manager of the Drury Lane Theatre. Just as theater director Macready was instrumental in the rescue of the Shakespearean drama. He worked, as far as he was able, with the original texts and also had as an actor with Shakespeare great success. Hamlet, Lear and Macbeth were his greatest successes in these years.
He also advocated for the modernization of the English drama, and already in 1837 brought Robert Browning's Strafford to the stage. The following year, he was Bulwer's Lady of Lyons and Richelieu stage. On June 10, 1838 Macready Shakespeare's Henry V. was given the painter Clarkson Stanfield created the sets and at the first performance were Edward Bulwer- Lytton, Charles Dickens, John Forster, Daniel Maclise and William Johnson Fox and other friends MacReady and Stan Fields in attendance.
1843 was followed by a second tour to New York and 1848/49 a third. There Macready was also able to achieve great success with Shakespeare characters, but which earned him the bitter enmity of the actor Edwin Forrest. This staged on the occasion of a performance of 1849 Macready at the Astor Opera House a scandal. With friends together Forrest bothered this theater performance, which quickly grew into tumultuous fisticuffs. This grew out of and in the end were about 20 deaths to mourn. Today known is this event as Astor Place Riot.
After his return Macready came back on at Drury Lane Theatre.
On February 26, 1851, he was there with "Macbeth" his farewell performance. He retired into private life. Died in 1852 his wife Catherine. In the following years Macready continued to work on Shakespeare texts and married 1860 in Cheltenham Cecile Louis Spencer and had a son with her; the later General Nevil Macready. A week before his 80th birthday, William Charles Macready died on 27 April 1873.
The actor George Macready (1899-1973) claimed also to be a descendant of William Charles MacReady.
Roles (selection)
- Richard III. ( Richard III. , William Shakespeare)
- William Tell ( William Tell, James Sheridan Knowles )
- Rob Roy (Rob Roy, Isaac Potock )
- Werner ( Werner, George Gordon Byron )
- Sardanapalus, ( Sardanapalus, George Gordon Byron )
- King Lear ( King Lear, William Shakespeare)
- Antony ( Antony and Cleopatra, William Shakespeare)
Works
- The diaries of William Charles Macready. Blom Books, New York, 1969 ( Repr d ed London 1912)