Caroline Placide Waring Blake ( – ) was an American stage actress. Caroline Placide was born in in

Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the List of municipalities in South Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint of South Carolina's coastline on Charleston Harbor, an inlet of the Atla ...

, the eldest of five children of actors Alexandre Placide and Charlotte Wrighten Placide. French-born Alexander Placide managed the

Charleston Theatre Charleston Theatre, also called Broad Street Theatre, was a theatre in Charleston, South Carolina, between 1794 and 1833. It was the first permanent theatre in Charleston, the first with a permanent staff, and the only theater for much of its dura ...

. Caroline Placide made her stage debut there at the age of three, playing one of the title characters' children in the

pantomime Pantomime (; informally panto) is a type of musical comedy stage production designed for family entertainment, generally combining gender-crossing actors and topical humour with a story more or less based on a well-known fairy tale, fable or ...

'' Medea and Jason,'' and appeared in many other roles in Charleston and New York City throughout her childhood. Noah Ludlow later wrote "she was almost cradled on the stage." In 1814, at the age of sixteen, she married the comic actor Leigh Waring. He died in 1816. They had one child, the actress Anne Duff Waring Sefton Wallack. In 1824, she played a leading role in the premiere of the

ballad opera The ballad opera is a genre of England, English ''comic opera'' stage play that originated in the early 18th century, and continued to develop over the following century and later. Like the earlier ''comédie en vaudeville'' and the later ''Sings ...

''The Saw-Mill; or a Yankee Trick'' by Micah Hawkins at the

Chatham Garden Theatre The Chatham Garden Theatre or Chatham Theatre was a playhouse in the Chatham Gardens of New York City. It was located on the north side of Chatham Street on Park Row between Pearl and Duane streets in lower Manhattan. The grounds ran through to ...

. ''The Saw-Mill'' is often cited as the first American opera. Also appearing in the opera was a Canadian actor seven years her junior, William Rufus Blake. In 1826, she and Blake married. Over the next four decades they performed together and managed theatres in the US and Canada. Notable leading roles they played together include Sir Peter Teazle and Lady Teazle in ''

The School for Scandal ''The School for Scandal'' is a comedy of manners written by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. It was first performed in London at Drury Lane Theatre on 8 May 1777. Plot Act I Scene I: Lady Sneerwell, a wealthy young widow, and her hireling S ...

.'' Her last stage appearance was at the

Winter Garden Theatre The Winter Garden Theatre is a Broadway theatre at 1634 Broadway in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York, U.S. Originally designed by architect William Albert Swasey, it opened in 1911. The Winter Garden's current des ...

in 1862. She retired after her husband died the next year. Caroline Placide died on 21 May 1881 in

Long Branch, New Jersey Long Branch is a beachside city in Monmouth County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the city's population was 31,667, an increase of 948 (+3.1%) from the 2010 census count of 30,719, which in turn reflect ...

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Blake, Caroline Placide Waring Created via preloaddraft 1798 births 1881 deaths American stage actresses