Southwark Theatre

Southwark Theatre, the first permanent play-house to be erected in Philadelphia, and possibly the first in America. A rough brick and wood structure painted red, its stage lit by oil lamps, it was built in 1766 by David Douglass, manager of the American Company, and opened on 12 Nov. with Vanbrugh's The Provoked Wife and Isaac Bickerstaffe's Thomas and Sally. Early in 1767 it saw the production for one night of Godfrey's The Prince of Parthia, the first American play to be staged professionally. During the War of Independence the building, which from its position was sometimes known as the South Street Theatre, was closed, but after the departure of the British it reopened for a short time in the autumn of 1778. In 1784 the younger Hallam and John Henry, who had assumed the management of the American Company, stopped in Philadelphia on their way back to New York from the West Indies, and reopened the theatre for a while. It continued to be used for plays after their departure until in 1821 it was partly destroyed by fire. It was finally demolished in 1912.