Augustin daly biography of william
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Augustin Daly
American theatre impresario (–)
John Augustin Daly (July 20, – June 7, ) was one of the most influential men in American theatre during his lifetime. Drama critic, theatre manager, playwright, and adapter, he became the first recognized stage director in America. He exercised fierce and tyrannical control over all aspects of his productions. His rules of conduct for actors and actresses imposed heavy fines for late appearances and forgotten lines and earned him the title "the autocrat of the stage."[1] He formed a permanent company in New York and opened Daly's Theatre in New York in , and a second one in London in [2]
Biography
[edit]Augustin Daly was born in Plymouth, North Carolina to Captain Denis Daly, sea-captain and ship owner, and Elizabeth, daughter of Lieutenant John Duffy of the British Army. He was educated in Norfolk, Virginia, and in the public schools of New York City. His mother, early left a widow, brought her two boys to
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Augustin Daly
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Augustin Daly had the greatest eye for acting talent of any manager in 19th-century America, a tireless energy as a playwright and translator of European plays, and an uncanny instinct about how to stage implausible or formulaic events on stage in a way to capture public interest. His theatrical career began as a newspaper critic, a position that he held at several New York papers, and which made him analyze the effects and defects of plot and dramaturgy in contemporary drama.
During the Civil War Daly turned from critiquing plays to fashioning them, first Americanizing Mosenthal's "Deborah" into "Leah, the Forsaken," and then attempting original plays. He made his reputation in melodrama with "Under the Gaslight" and "Pique." The success of the former secured him enough money to lease the 5th Avenue Theatre where he formed his revolutionary company of actors, securing new talents, or seasoned performers who possessed sufficient versatility to play off type. His