Augusta's first theatre season: 1790–91

Abstract

In 1790–91 two professional actresses opened a theatre in Augusta, Georgia, the frontier capital on the banks of the Savannah River. Their theatre was the first floor of the Academy, also used as the Court‐House. Aided by the Dramatic Society of gentlemen thespians, Mrs. Robinson and Miss Susannah Wall presented comedies, vocal entertainments, and sketches. Their efforts were reviewed in the Augusta Chronicle by “Zoilus,” a keen and witty critic. The building eventually became known as “The Theatre” and was used by actors from Charleston and Savannah until it burned to the ground in 1823. Although the selection of plays was conservative, the Augustans’ liberality in welcoming two pioneer women was unique in the theatre annals of eighteenth‐century America.