Actor-manager

An actor-manager is a leading actor who sets up their own permanent theatrical company and manages the business, sometimes taking over a theatre to perform select plays in which they usually star.

The system of actor-management generally produced high standards of performance, as demonstrated by such 19th-century actors as William Macready, Charles Wyndham, Henry Irving, Frank Benson and Herbert Beerbohm Tree, by husband-wife teams such as Squire Bancroft and Effie Bancroft, Frank Wyatt and Violet Melnotte, William Hunter Kendal and Madge Robertson Kendal and Thomas and Priscilla German Reed, and by women stars, such as Lucia Elizabeth Vestris, Lucy Escott, Selina Dolaro, Evelyn Millard, Sarah Bernhardt, Sarah Thorne, Gertrude Kingston, Emily Soldene, Laura Keene and Lydia Thompson, among many others.

The newspapers, private clubs, pubs and coffee shops rang with lively debates palming the relative merits of the stars of their productions.

His company toured across Britain, as well as Europe and the United States, demonstrating the power of star actors and celebrated roles to attract enthusiastic audiences.

[8] Though no longer the standard practice, modern actor-managers do exist and increasingly fringe work is being explored on this model as actors look to provide themselves with an artistic platform which they have the means to control.