The Mask and Wig Club, a private club in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, founded in 1889, is a historic collegiate musical comedy troupe. Created as an alternative to the existing theatrical and dramatic outlets at the University of Pennsylvania, Mask and Wig has presented comedy, music, and dancing to the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and audiences across the country. Its credo is "Justice to the stage; credit to the University."
Mask & Wig Clubhouse (remodeled by Wilson Eyre, 1894)
Company members rehearsing at the clubhouse in 1930
Maxfield Parrish's illustration of the winter 1895–1896 Mask and Wig program. Parrish also made mural and other art for Mask and Wig Clubhouse.
Maxfield Parrish 1896 illustration of one of the earliest programs
Chestnut Street Opera House
The Chestnut Street Opera House was a theatre located at 1021–1029 Chestnut Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Built by theatre impresario Robert Fox on the former site of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, it opened as a venue for vaudeville in 1870 as Fox's New American Theatre. The theatre was destroyed by fire in 1877 and was rebuilt that same year. After being acquired by George K. Goodwin, the theatre was remodeled, renamed the Chestnut Street Opera House, and re-opened as a legitimate theatre in 1880. It continued to operate as a legitimate theatre, first under the management of theatre magnates Samuel F. Nixon and J. Fred Zimmerman Sr., who acquired the theatre's lease in 1882, and later under the Shubert Organization, who acquired the theatre in 1916. It was still considered one of Philadelphia's leading legitimate theatres during the 1920s and 1930s. The theatre was also used as a venue for films and was a model theatre for the Triangle Film Corporation in 1915–1916. The theatre closed in 1939 and was demolished in 1940.
Chestnut Street Opera House
Party Scene by Robert Henri. Part of the collection of the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Henri would often sketch audiences at the Chestnut Street Opera House, and it's possible this ink drawing was made at the theatre.
Front cover of sheet music for the song "Lover Come Back To Me" from The New Moon.