There's a volume of portraits of actors at http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100022589190.0x000002#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=109&z=-120.5895%2C0%2C1414.179%2C1954 - I wonder if any of them have been found in the playbills so far?
'For the benefit of'?
2 months later
Birmingham, 1815, 'BENEFIT OF THE GENERAL HOSPITAL'
200 years later and many a general hospital now could do with the proceeds to fund the care of the nation.
image.png
3 months later
This is interesting: 'For the benefit of those performers, who, from unavoidable circumstances, have failed in their former attempts'
vdc-1000225891570x00006d.jpeg
And someone shared this in a comment: Final season performance to benefit the Benevolent Fund as requested by the Duchess of Newcastle http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100022589158.0x000002#?cv=92
7 months later
For the benefit of the AGED WIDOW of JOHN WELCH (compositor)
vdc-1000225890210x000178.jpeg
http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100022589022.0x000002#?cv=373
And of course, @Frisby spotted 'An internationally themed performance at the Royal Coburg (better known as the Old Vic) which was given for the benefit of Spanish refugees.'
https://community.libcrowds.com/d/31-famous-people-spotted/11
a year later
"The proceeds of this Play will be appropriated to the relief and assistance of the distressed Highlanders and Poor now suffering in the Islands of Scotland"
John Herridge, one of our most prolific volunteers, has spotted an immensely interesting detail from a Jersey Island playbill dating from 1837; it is suffixed with this note at the foot of the bill.
Benefit performances are typically noted at the top of the bill and are usually associated with actors and other theatre workers (see the previous posts in this thread). We have spotted the occasional bill from the mid-19th century announcing charity performances for local hospitals or for orphaned children, but this fundraiser - for the people affected by the social and economic upheaval of the pernicious and the chronic effects of Highland clearances appears to be a very progressive and humanitarian gesture from the theatre. On first appearances it seems like a bold move - even though the Benefit announcement is 'relegated' to the foot of the bill instead of being given the usual puff in large sized bold type at the top of the bill. Was it controversial? Were the fundraisers hoping not to generate too much notice or controversy? The Arts have of course a long history of raising funds and awareness for social concerns and issues. Was this part of a wider network of events? Was it spontaneous or more solidly organised? This great spot from one of our project's volunteers provides historians with a very interesting detail for further investigation.
Very interesting set of questions! Some playbills record benefits for local causes like dispensaries, but not usually for major disasters like this. A very cursory search of BNA for the Scottish crisis in 1837 has returned reports of a lot of fundraising initiatives in Britain and Ireland including the Channel Islands, mainly from local civic corporations and organisations, church collections, royalty and the occasional aristo, but not much in the way of the theatre. A proposed fundraising ball at the King's Theatre in London for 28/07/37, organised by various dukes, earls etc https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000174/18370603/020/0003
was put back a few weeks and moved to a different venue, and the hoped-for attendance of various royals doesn't seem to have taken place. More relevant perhaps is the donation of 10 guineas by Charles Kean in April 1837 while at the Theate Royal in Edinburgh, with the theatre manager donating the same sum. Perhaps other Scottish theatres raised money?
https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000540/18370401/036/0002
How influential was Kean at this time? As you say, something worthy of research.
2 months later
https://www.libcrowds.com/collection/playbills/projects/176/iiif-annotation
For the benefit of Miss Joyner, the lessee of a theatre in Margate, here in Sandwich, is bemoaning the lack of audiences and appeals for people to attend and help her out. Interesting that the bill mentions the small recent amounts taken and how a full house will make enough to break even.
10 days later
You can get the link for the whole digitised volume from the 'i' button. In this case it's http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100022589118.0x000002 - it's slightly hidden in the 'cite as' section.
If you comment during a task, we get an email that has a direct link to the right image in the playbill - it's really handy!
The theatre in Salisbury has a few bills for plays for the benefit of "the poor". How the poor were defined, it doesn't say.
image.png
This must be an in-joke reflecting the two plays' themes! I wonder if the wives felt the same.