Who is this person?

[Eva Elisabeth]

BRILLIANT, Roger, that is correct - thank you for guessing on a difficult question!

Ira Aldridge was probably the "greatest" and most successful of the first African-American actors, especially in Shakesperean roles. He made his career largely on the London stage though, and was popular in Prussia and Russia.

Laurie's suspicion that Dr. Anderson Abbott's color would have denied him entrance to Ford's Theatre in 1865 (here: http://rogerjnorton.com/LincolnDiscussio...ge-74.html ) in which I believe she was correct as even Frederick Douglass was almost denied access to the levee following President Lincoln's Second Inauguration because "strict orders have been issued not to admit people of color", made me wonder about the engagement of black actors or admission of black audience at Ford's and finally led me to this trivia question.

Ira Aldridge's first professional acting experience was in the early 1820s with the "African Company" in NYC, a group founded and managed by William Henry Brown and James Hewlett. In 1821, the group built the African Grove Theatre, the first resident African American theatre in the United States, with a short lived existence - obviously only until 1823. Nevertheless, in London, Aldridge was advertised as the American Tragedian from the African Theater New York City. The second playbill refers to him as 'The African Tragedian.'

Back to NYC. When the Park Theatre - New York City's leading theater of the time - put on Richard III starring Junius Brutus Booth, the African Company rented a hall next door for its own production of the same play the same night. Theatrical competition was stiff; Stephen Price, owner of the Park, orchestrated (and paid for) a disturbance over the rival productions so that the police would shut down the African Grove.