Charles Durang (December 4, 1794 – 1870) was an American actor, dancer, writer, and theater historian.

Life

Charles Durang was born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

on December 4, 1794, the son of

John Durang John Durang (January 6, 1768 – March 31, 1822) was the first native-born American to become known as a dancer. Said to be George Washington's favorite performer, he was famous for dancing the hornpipe, a lively, jiglike solo exhibition so ca ...

, the first native-born American professional dancer. Charles made his first appearance in the Chestnut Street Theater at the age of 7 in 1803, and subsequently performed in almost every theater in the United States. He was actor, author, stage manager, prompter, ballet master, and finally opened a dancing academy. He worked for many years as a dancing master and rehearsal repetiteur at the Chestnut Street Theatre, in the 1840s and 50s. A friend and admirer of his fellow Philadelphian

Edwin Forrest Edwin Forrest (March 9, 1806December 12, 1872) was a nineteenth-century American Shakespearean actor. His feud with the British actor William Macready was the cause of the deadly Astor Place Riot of 1849. Early life Forrest was born in Phila ...

, he named his son after the actor. Edwin Forrest Durang eventually became a prominent Philadelphia architect. Charles Durang was the author of a "History of the Philadelphia Stage from 1752 to 1854," which appeared serially in the Philadelphia ''Journal''. The totality of these newspapers columns, which are an invaluable reference to historians of early American theater, were carefully collected and annotated by Thompson Westcott in 1868, with Durang's assistance. They were bound into six large scrapbooks, along with a multitude of illustrations and prints of actors and theaters of the era. These books are in the collection of the University of Pennsylvania Libraries, and a digitized facsimile is available online. Durang died in Philadelphia, February 15, 1870. Durang's descendant, Jack Myers, is the author of several books including Row House Days, Row House Blues, Knights' Gold, The Delco Files, The Pennsylvania Files, The Son of Zodiac, and Treasure Kids!

Books

* ''Durang's Terpsichore or Ball Room Guide''. Turner & Fisher: New York, 1848.
''The Fashionable Dancer's Casket: or, The Ball-Room Instructor''
1856. (HTML and page images at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

) * "History of the Philadelphia Stage, Between the Years 1749 and 1855." Arranged and illustrated by Thompson Westcott, 1868 {{DEFAULTSORT:Durang, Charles 1794 births 1870 deaths Artists from Philadelphia American male dancers American male stage actors 19th-century American dancers