The Theatre’s Grandest Night
Henry Irving and Ellen Terry bring Shakespeare to an overflowing Seattle audience.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
In the annals of theatrical productions in this city, the presentation of The Merchant of Venice at the Seattle Theater last evening will ever be a memorable occasion. It was fitting that the finest assemblage of men and women which ever gathered under one roof in this city should greet the foremost actor and actress of the English race. Every seat in the theater was filled, and the foyer was crowded with standing humanity. Fully one-half of the audience were ladies, and this proportion held good in all parts of the house. The spontaneous greeting that met the great actors upon their first entrance was a tribute to their fame, and showed that the people of Seattle were willing to accept them at the estimate of London, New York and other great cities.
“It was fitting that the finest assemblage of men and women which ever gathered under one roof in this city should greet the foremost actor and actress of the English race.”
The Seattle Theater served as the cultural heartbeat of a growing city that desperately wanted to prove its sophistication against eastern capitals. Today, the theater scene in Seattle is decentralized and varied, but the intense civic pride expressed in witnessing 'the finest' performers remains a hallmark of the city's relationship with arts and culture.
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