It was a Dickens of an Evening at the Historic Dock Street Theatre--Bravo Charleston Stage

It was a Dickens of an evening in the old French Quarter at Charleston's almost three hundred year old theatre venue. Standing on Church Street, positioned in front of the lighted, tall trees across the way, we had a magical view of the theatre doors and windows brightly lit with the colors of the season. The entranceway and box office lobby was busy with paying patrons filled with anticipation of what was yet to come. Their expectations would not be scrooged.

The original Dock Street Theatre opened in 1736. It was the first building designed for theatrical use in the Americas. Quite a privileged distinction that set it apart from all other theatres. One month after the it opened, Queen Street replaced Dock Street. However, the theatre retained its original name. The original theatre was probably destroyed by the Great Fire of 1740, along with many of the buildings in Charleston's French Quarter.

In 1809, it was replaced by Planter's Hotel, where wealthy planters stayed during Charleston's horse-racing season. In 1835, the wrought iron balcony and sandstone columns of the Church Street facade were added. After the Civil War, the Planter's Hotel fell into disrepair. It became a derelict building and nothing more than a shell slated for demolition.

In 1935, it went through a restoration. The new theatre was constructed within the shell of the Planter's Hotel. The new stage house and auditorium were modeled after eighteenth-century London playhouses. The local carpenters, who were put to work as a part of this Depression-era relief effort, utilized locally grown and milled native black cypress for the beautiful warm, wooden interior and used mantels salvaged from the Radcliffe-King Mansion. The theatre's second grand opening took place on November 26, 1937.

In 2007, a full-scale renovation brought the historic theater into the 21st century with state-of-the-art lighting and sound, modern heating and air conditioning, and new restrooms and seating. In addition, the theatre was made seismically secure and fully handicapped accessible. Extensive soundproofing was added to ensure that outside noises no longer intruded on performances inside. It reopened in March 2010, ready to dazzle and gratify its patrons with a taste of Broadway.

Dock Street Theatre became the home for Charleston Stage, its resident performing arts group, in 1978. Ironically, their first show in 1978 was a production of A Christmas Carol. However, this year's production is brand new, with all new sets, costumes, and updates to Wile's original script adaptation. The stunning scenery features a dozen hand-painted drops and sets created by Guest Scenic Designer Susan Crabtree, faculty member of the North Carolina School of the Arts and one of America’s premier scenic painters. Over 80 original, colorful costumes have been built by Charleston Stage's professional costume staff and designed by Guest Costume Designer Janine McCabe, chair of the College of Charleston’s Department of Theatre and Dance. While the score features many familiar traditional carols, Charleston Stage's Resident Music Director, Sam Henderson, has created new and bright arrangements and orchestrations for each number.

Guest Actor Gabriel Wright, a former Resident Actor with Charleston Stage, now appearing on behalf of the Actor's Equity Association, played the squeezing, wrenching, grasping, clutching, covetous, old sinner Ebenezer Scrooge, who was solitary as an oyster. Gabriel walked the walk and talked the talk of the old, cold-hearted miser with masterful poise. He was surrounded by an energetic and up-to-the-task cast consisting of Cody Elsensohn as Bob Cratchit, Raymond Cronley as Fred, Brietta Goodman as The Ghost of Christmas Present, K'nique Eichelberger as Young Ebenezer and The Ghost of Christmas Future, Louie Chaplin Moss as Tiny Tim, and Jenna Barricklo as Belle.

Other talents included Acting Ensemble Member Colin Waters as The Ghost of Christmas Past, and former Resident Actor Patrick Brett as Jacob Marley. Over twenty additional actors from the Resident Acting Company, Charleston Stage Performance Troupe, and local community rounded out the cast as the Ensemble.

There is nothing humbug about Charleston Stage's heartwarming adaptation of  Charles Dickens timeless story of redemption and transformation. You will be thoroughly entertained by its colorful and artistically presented production. Without a doubt, the cast successfully connected with their appreciative audience. I will give you this one parting valuable hint, pay close attention to the initial arrival of each ghost.

135 Church St, Charleston, SC

Nov. 30 - Dec. 21, 2022

Purchase tickets.

Two Early Charleston Theaters With Impressive Structures Hidden In The Shadows Of Time

The Time Machine has always been one of my favorite all-time movies--that is, the original version. Especially the scene where its inventor, George, enters his full-size machine, carefully inserts a masterfully crafted lever, excitedly yet slowly pushes it forward engaging its intricate mechanisms, and fully immersed in cautious wonderment, watches his surroundings and a store's mannequin across from his residence materially change in appearance season after season, year after year. I would have loved to place that same time machine on Church Street directly across from the building that became the Dock Street Theater so I could have watched the comings and goings through its many remarkable changing and passing years.

Today, standing on Church Street and looking directly towards the storied Dock Street Theater, the eye catching wrought iron balcony and sandstone columns gracing its facade immediately captures your imagination. The theater is by far Charleston's most remembered, not because it was the City's only theater, but simply because its appellation has survived Charleston's tumultuous history of confrontation, conflagration, and cataclysm. Its cycle of existence reminds me of the Bible passage at Revelation 17:8, which in part reads, "...and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder...when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is." The Dock Street Theater opened on February 12, 1736--"was", went out of existence in the Great Fire of 1740 and was replaced with the Planter's Hotel--"and is not", and finally returned as the Dock Street Theater on November 26, 1937--"and yet is."

During the time the Dock Street Theater was not, hidden in the shadows of time and lesser known by most people today, there existed two celebrated theaters housed in architecturally impressive structures. The Broad Street Theatre, also called Charleston Theatre, was built at the corner of Broad Street and Middleton Street (now New Street). The New Theater was constructed on Meeting Street.

The Broad Street Theatre was designed by James Hoban (best known as the architect of the White House in Washington). The masonry playhouse was built by contractor Capt. Anthony Toomer. As reported by the City Gazette on August 14, 1792, "the ground was laid off for the new theatre, on Savage's Green. …125 feet in length, the width 56 feet, the height 37 feet, with a handsome pediment, stone ornaments, a large flight of stone steps, and a palisaded courtyard. The front will be on Broad Street, and the pit entrance on Middleton Street. Owned by West and Bignall, the theater seated 1,200 people. It opened February 1793.

Soon after the Broad Street Theatre opened, Santo Domingan refugee John Sollée built a French-language theater on Church Street. Competition between the two theaters was fierce, and heightened by conflicting political alliances after France declared war on Great Britain in February 1793. While the wealthy elite patronized Shakespearean productions on Broad Street, supporters of the Jacobin revolutionaries flocked to the comedies, acrobatics, and light opera presented at the French Theater. After the 1795-96 season, it was effectively out of business.

While the Broad Street Theatre remained closed, the French and English theater companies merged during the spring of 1796 and through the summer of that year performed at a Church Street theater under the name of "City Theatre." Then, in the spring of 1800, the parties cooperated to open both playhouses. The re-opened Broad Street venue would present drama and the Church Street venue music, acrobatics, and ballet. Sollée then renovated his Church Street property as a music hall and ballroom, known for years as "Concert Hall." After 1800, the Broad Street theater was Charleston's only playhouse, and generally referred to as The Theatre.

The theater closed when the War of 1812 broke out, reopening in the autumn of 1815 under the management of English actor Joseph Holman. Junius Brutus Booth performed two engagements in the winter of 1821-22. On February 20, 1826, the City Gazette advised its readers that a "New Portico" would be erected at the expense of Mrs. Gilbert to induce attendance. Within a few years, the portico had been added to the Broad Street facade.

Broad Street Theatre became Medical College in 1833

By 1832, attendance had fallen off sharply. The decline was attributed to the steep price of tickets at a time when many had "circumscribed means." The tight wallets were a response to Charleston's weak economy, and the theater soon closed permanently. On July 25, 1833, the Broad Street Theatre was purchased by the faculty of the Medical College of the State of South Carolina for the sum of $12,000. The building was destroyed in the great fire of December 1861.

With the closing of the Broad Street theater, the city was without a proper theatrical venue. In early 1835, a group of businessmen led by Robert Witherspoon agreed to develop a new theater enterprise. They bought a lot on Meeting Street from the Grand Lodge of Ancient Free Masons of South Carolina, and organized "The Charleston New Theatre," as a joint-stock company.

New Theatre

Famous architect, Charles Reichardt (designer of the Charleston City Hall, original Charleston Hotel, Chisolm House, and Millford Plantation), designed the world-class auditorium. It was erected by a partnership of builders, Curtis, Fogartie and Sutton. While construction was underway, the theater was leased to an experienced actor-manager who brought a company of players to Charleston.

The Charleston Courier, December 18, 1837 described the 1200-seat New Theatre as being two full stories in height above a raised basement. The stuccoed brick building had a massive Ionic portico, with four columns, above an arcaded base. The portico was accessible only from within the building; entry from Meeting Street was through the arcade level. Three main doors opened to the lobby/vestibule, which had a ticket office at one side, ladies withdrawing room at the other, and a corridor leading to the boxes and seating floor. Above the richly ornamented auditorium was a large dome, at its center a forty-eight lamp chandelier eight feet across.

The New Theatre opened on December 15, 1837 to a large audience. After Mr. Latham delivered a "poetical address" written for the occasion by William Gilmore Simms, theater manager William Abbott took the lead role in the play, The Honey Moon, supported by Miss Melton and Mrs. Herbert, who also sang an "afterpiece."

In March of 1838, Junius Booth was booked to make his first appearance in Charleston in more than a decade at the theater. His characterization of Sir Giles Overreach was declared by the Southern Patriot as being on the whole "the most thrilling piece of acting we have ever seen…" In May, 1840, the celebrated German ballerina Fanny Elssler, whose appearances in Baltimore and New York had caused riots among her adoring fans, danced at Charleston's theater.

Although Abbott left Charleston in 1841, a series of managers were relatively successful in running the theater for the next twenty years. In 1858 and 1859, Edwin Booth (son of Junius Booth and brother of John Wilkes Booth) played several engagements. He reenacted his father's great roles as Richelieu, Hamlet, Giles Overreach, and Othello. The New Theatre was also destroyed in the great fire of December 1861.


The steps in the foreground was all that was left of the New Theatre after the 1861 fire and the Civil War.

The Broad Street Theatre and the New Theatre were not the only venues in Charleston back in their day just as the Dock Street Theatre is not the only one today, but they were prominent venues with impressive structures. What set the Dock Street Theatre apart from all others? It was America's first built exclusively to be used for theatrical performances and its name has prevailed over the ravages of time. It seats 475 people with state-of-the-art lighting and sound.

Not far from the Dock Street Theatre on Queen Street is the The Footlight Players. It was formally organized and incorporated in 1932. In 1934, the group purchased an old 1850 cotton warehouse that eventually became their permanent home. There are many other smaller venues located throughout Charleston--all producing quality entertainment.

A Famous Early Charleston Tavern--Gone But Not Forgotten

You can bet your shrimp and grits, there is no mistaking where this famous Charleston casualty of the wrecking ball once upon a time stood. Its striking replacement, the South State Bank of Charleston, has plaques plastered all along its Church Street side documenting its significant role in the city's early history. For nearly two hundred years, it had been known by many names, but it was best known by its first, Shepheard's Tavern.

Charles Shepheard built his tavern somewhere around 1720 on Broad Street. As it turned out, the tavern was advantageously located between the city's center of government conducted at the State House, also built on Broad Street, and the city's commercial heart with its bustling wharfs on East Bay Street. It was a four-story oblong building with a long room stretching down its Church Street side.

According to one source, Shepheard's Tavern burned down in 1740 and 1796 and another source only mentions 1796. Both could be true since great fires occurred in Charleston in each of those years around Broad Street and Church Street. In 1740, it was rebuilt using as many materials as could be salvaged from the original building. At the time of its burning in 1796, the building was used as a retail and wholesale store. Again, it was rebuilt. An artist's depiction of the tavern is etched on a granite stone located at the Church Street corner of the present Southern Bank of Charleston. Swallow's Tavern, The City Tavern and The Corner Tavern were its other known names.

To comprehend the importance Shepheard's Tavern played in early Charleston society is to understand the role of the tavern to early Colonial America. In "The Tavern in Colonial America," "The Gettysburg Historical Journal": Vol. 1, Article 7, Steven Struzinski stated, "Samuel Cole in Boston opened the first tavern on March 4, 1634. It was not long before the demand and necessity for taverns in New England, and throughout the colonies, was overwhelming. In 1656, the General Court of Massachusetts held towns accountable with fines if they did not sustain an ordinary...The tavern served a multitude of purposes in colonial towns and countrysides. They were means of direction for travelers, as well as settings where they could eat, drink, be entertained, and spend the night. Along with alcoholic beverages, colonists could play games, enjoy entertainment, participate in discussion, and receive the latest news and debate of the time. Along with being popular locations of social congress, taverns were significant for their function in town culture and society. Taverns were utilized as meeting place for assemblies and courts, destinations for refreshment and entertainment, and, most importantly, democratic venues of debate and discussion. The interiors of taverns were designed with different rooms, the largest room being the taproom with furnishings such as chairs, desks, the bar, and a fireplace. Certain upper-class taverns had parlors that were attached to the taproom. The taverns located in towns usually had special rooms designated for meetings of groups or, the more likely case, assemblies and court proceedings."

Compared to all the public houses and taverns in early Charles Towne, Shepheard's Tavern stood out at showcasing all the various facets mentioned in Struzinski's article. Prior to 1738, the tavern's room stretching down Church Street was rented to the provincial government for court meetings and as a result, acquired the nickname "the courtroom." The St. Andrew's Society held their dinners and meetings in the tavern, as did the newly formed "Ancient and Honorable Society of Free and Accepted Masons." Henry Holt, a dancer turned thespian, gave a ball there in December of 1734.

In 1935, the tavern's "long room" was rented to a group of strolling players and local musicians who launched the town's first theatrical season with the presentation of Thomas Otway's "The Orphan, or the Unhappy Marriage." At a cost of 40 shillings per ticket, Charlestonians crowded into the tavern on January 24, 1935 for the plays opening performance, which was repeated on January 28th and twice in February.

On February 18th, the first advertised opera in America was performed by the same players. It was called "Flora or Hob in the Well" written by Colley Cibber. Charles Towne's first theatrical season at Shepheard's Tavern was such an impressive success, a subscription drive was undertaken to raise money to build a permanent playhouse. Not long after, enough funds were accumulated to begin construction of the theatre on Dock Street in 1736--recognized as the first theater in the English colonies, but disputed by some who say a theater built in Williamsburg predated it by two decades.

In 1743, it served as a post office. In 1773, when the establishment was known as Swallow's Tavern, the first Chamber of Commerce in America was formed on the site. During the Revolutionary period, the tavern was among those that hosted meetings of the Sons of Liberty. On August 29, 1783, when it was called The City Tavern, 43 Continental Army officers residing in South Carolina met at the calling of Major General William Moultrie to establish the South Carolina Society of the Cincinnati. After the tavern burned down in 1796 and was rebuilt, in May 31, 1801 the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry was founded. Later, in the 19th century, it became a grocery store called Klinck, Wickenburg and Company. The building was demolished in 1928 to make way for the construction of the classic style bank faced with Indiana limestone at a cost of $280,000. Salvaged bricks from the demolition were used in the construction of the outbuildings behind one of Charleston's oldest double tenements at 143 1nd 145 Church Street.

Even though Shepheard's Tavern has gone the way of other Charleston icons such as the Charleston Hotel, the Argyle Hotel, Bennett Rice Mill, and Institute Hall, to name a few, its prominence in early Charleston is forever burned into the city's historical archives. Take a walk to the corner of busy Broad and Church Street and pause for a few moments. Try to envision the four story building that strategically stood there once upon a time and recall its impressive history. If you need a little assistance in nudging your imagination, stop at the Market Pavilion Hotel and indulge in one of its Nitrotinis before embarking on your trip to the past. The patrons of the old tavern would be envious.

Charleston's Pirate House--A Place Where The Reality Morphed Into The Legend

Charleston's antiquity runs as deep as its harbor waters and its tales are as tall as the steeple of St. Phillips on Church Street. As one of the oldest cities in America, it is a place where reality and legend walk the same streets declaring a timeless story about the lives of its progeny and their hallowed structures. A place where fact and fiction have been skillfully blurred to the delight of those who come to bask in its charm and grace. This is true of one of Charleston's oldest townhouses located at 143 and 145 Church Street.

It was built by Huguenot merchant, Alexander Peronneau, as a double tenement around 1740--likely after Charleston's great fire of 1740. The material used in its construction was Bermuda stone placed on a brick foundation--Bermuda stone was widely used in the construction of early Charleston. The city's old fortification wall was made from Bermuda stone as well as the 1769 seawall that was probably destroyed in the 1800s by a hurricane.

American scholar, Justin Schwebler, stated in an interview printed in The Royal Gazette, "The archives here have a very good history of how the stone got here. It appears that the stone would be cut in quarries in Bermuda, before being taken down to the Turks and Caicos, where large quantities of salt would also be loaded on to the ship. Then both materials would be brought up to Charleston, where the stone would be used for buildings and walls, and the salt for food preservation."

In the late eighteenth century, the double tenement was owned by craftsman and planter, Paul Smiser. Next, Mrs. Goodwyn Rhett took possession of the property. In 1928, Mrs. Rhett restored the home to a single residence with the help of Thomas Pinckney, a local African-American builder. At this time, the outbuildings located behind the primary residence were constructed using salvaged brick from the former Shepheard's Tavern on Broad Street, also called The Corner Tavern, which was demolished in that same year.

It is believed after the restoration of the house rumors began to circulate claiming pirates lived there in its early days and used an underground tunnel system located in its basement that was connected to the waterfront of the Battery. The rumors stated the tunnels were the primary means of smuggling and escape for the pirate visitors and at the historic Dock Street Theatre, two blocks down Church Street, evidence of the tunnel's existence can be found underneath its stage--an opening into a sand-filled passageway. During extensive renovations and the redirection of Charleston's sewage systems in the 1930's, the tunnel was filled with sand, as the story tells. One rumor claims Blackbeard's legendary cache of gold is buried somewhere within the tunnel or in the basement of the house.

The name Pirate House became attached to the address as a result of these stories, but search as you may, no legitimate evidence can be found supporting such claims. The Dock Street Theatre is peculiarly silent as to the rumored opening underneath its stage leading to a sand-filled tunnel. None-the-less, there is a plausible explanation as to how the truth, by way of a slight variation, gave birth to the rumor that grew into the legend.

Extensive renovations, including heavy disturbances to the grounds, were performed on the property of the Dock Street Theatre in the 1930's. In a report presented to the city of Charleston called "The Dock Street Theatre: Archeological Discovery and Exploration," evidence of an opening being discovered is corroborated. It states, "Visible in the northwest corner of the interior courtyard, adjacent to the exterior wall of the theater building and a brick property wall, was an opening in the concrete flooring of the courtyard, excavated to a depth of approximately 3' below the concrete surface. A rectangular brick foundation, roughly 6' north/south by 8' east/west, was exposed in the 10' x 10' opening." Construction workers reported that three courses of brick were removed from the foundation to complete the pit excavation. The foundation, visible in remnant yellow sand fill, was a single header (brick laid with the narrow end exposed) wide. The size, configuration, and location of the foundation suggested a privy."

As to the privy's dating, the piece goes on to say, "Moreover, the location and possible association with the standing structure suggested the building could be associated with the early 19th century. However, the artifacts recovered during the pit excavation included five green glass bottles typical of the mid-18th century. Additional artifacts collected during the pit excavation and during the archaeologist's visit date to the 18th century. No early 19th century materials were recovered." The 18th century puts it during the pirate years of Charleston. So--and this is my own assumption, change one word of the summary, tunnel for privy, and you have the legend to captivate the masses. You have to admit, it does make for better story telling.

As to Blackbeard's treasure being buried in the basement of the house or in the tunnels, there is no concrete evidence to be found anywhere in the archives of Charleston to support such a presumption. In fact, it is more likely Blackbeard never set foot on the city's cobbled streets nor drank at its taverns, although, their paths did cross in May of 1718, when Blackbeard's flotilla of ships blockaded the port of Charles Town, stopped and ransacked nine vessels, took Samuel Wragg--a member of the Council of the Province of Carolina--along with other prominent Charles Town citizens hostage, and at one point near the end of the ordeal, entered the harbor of Charleston and threatened the city. Blackbeard was in need of medical supplies. The affair from start to finish lasted many days.

As the story goes, a Mr. Marks and two pirates were put into a boat and sent into Charleston to collect the drugs. While in Charleston, the two pirates and Mr. Marks became separated. The two pirates went on a drinking binge with friends, but not likely at the infamous Pirate House. It didn't exist until 1740, although some say it was built in 1704, which then would have made it possible. After days had passed, the pirates were found drunk and returned to the ships with Mr. Marks carrying the demanded drugs. The hostages were released and Blackbeard sailed away with whatever treasure he possessed. Through the whole affair, Blackbeard remained on the ships.

With a history stretching back to 1740, it is hard to say with any surety who visited or what happened at the double tenement at 143 and 145 Church Street. The fact it has survived fire, hurricane, earthquake, and change all these many years is a testimony to its resilience. Despite contrary facts, it will forever be known as the Pirate House and the rumor will prevail with those who choose to believe. And to those who choose otherwise, in Charleston, even the truth is legendary.