About this Event
Tuesday 23 April 6pm FREE
Members' priority until 2 April.
Declan McCormack
Who today has heard of West Digges, the ‘Roscius of the North’ or his friend the actor and pastoral poet John Cunningham? In this talk Declan McCormack tells the story of the development of professional theatre in Newcastle from the arrival of Thomas Kerrigan’s travelling company from York in the 1720s to the actor-manager Stephen Kemble’s final words on the boards of Newcastle’s first Theatre Royal in 1806. Hear more about Siddons fever: the child star Master Betty, Newcastle’s biggest-ever box-office earner; and the Berwick-raised actor George Frederick Cooke who launched the American star-system that continues in Hollywood today.
Declan McCormack won the Society of Theatre Research’s Kathleen Barker Award for his research on Northern Theatre in the long Eighteenth Century in 2015 and received his PhD from the University of York in 2022. His podcast Biographicon features many figures who have emerged from this research. Find out more at www.biographicon.net.
A LIVE Lit & Phil Event | FREE
(If you would prefer to book directly over the phone, please call the Library Desk team on 0191 232 0192 and they will be happy to help.)
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
The Lit & Phil, 23 Westgate Road, Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom
GBP 0.00