LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Fanny Kemble: United States
built 641 days ago
The eldest son, John Philip Kemble, 1757–1823, made his London debut (1783) as Hamlet. He was a stately, formal actor, the era’s foremost exponent of the declamatory school of acting, and suited only for tragedy; his best role was Coriolanus. At the Drury Lane from 1783 to 1803, he became manager in 1788 and often played opposite Sarah Kemble Siddons. He managed Covent Garden (1803–8) and, when it was destroyed by fire, built a new one, opening it in 1809. George Stephen Kemble, 1758–1822, their second son, was ... a Shakespearean actor, well known in later life for his girth and for his performance as Falstaff, especially at Covent Garden (1806) and the Drury Lane (1816). He also managed (1792–1800) the Edinburgh theater.
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Kemble returned to the United States, making a career of giving public readings from Shakespeare. This innovation brought her enthusiastic applause and a more than decent income. In 1863, in a very successful attempt to influence British public opinion against the Confederate states, she published an account of her plantation experience, Journal of a Residence on a Georgia Plantation. She published several later volumes of autobiography and ... literary criticism, as well as a novel, Far Away and Long Ago (1889).
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Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome a grande dame of the theatre in her triumphant return to the New York stage, Fanny Kemble! Don’t know her, you say? Her life spanned the entirety of the 19th century. Born into a theatrical family, she was the toast of the stage, playing and reading Shakespeare from her native England to her adopted home, the United States. She was an actress, a lady, a socialite, a loving wife and … a reluctant slave-owner. Her greatest performance would become the dramatic transformation of her own psyche from naïve artiste to a quiet radical.
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John Philip Kemble made his debut on the London stage in 1783 as Hamlet. His acting style was static and declamatory, with long sweeping lines and a detached grandeur. He excelled in tragic Shakespearean roles. One critic said he was ‘absolutely electrified’ by the actor’s transition as Romeo from gallant lover to anguished avenger, and Kemble’s style became the style of London for three decades. However he was not a natural comedian or suited to romantic leads.
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Kemble spent 1845 restoring her soul in Italy, where she wrote a heartfelt memoir, "A Year of Consolation." She then returned to England and resumed her acting career in "The Honeymoon" at the Theater Royal in 1847. A year later she sailed to Philadelphia to answer divorce charges and began giving a series of Shakespeare readings throughout the Eastern states.
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Born in London as a member of a notable acting family, Fanny was able to prevent the family’s financial ruin by studying acting for three weeks and making a sensational debut as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet. In 1832 she toured the United States and Canada, where she was praised as the first great actress on the North American stage.
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