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were built in the Central Business District catering specifically to the Anglo population. Included in “Merry as the Day Is Long’-axz playbills from both the St. Charles Theater, located on the 400 block of St. Charles Street, and the American Theater, on Camp Street near Poydras. Programs for The Taming of Shrew (1847), Richard III (1837), Much Ado about Nothing (1829), and The Merry Wives of Windsor (1832) illustrate the increase in Shakespeare productions on New Orleans stages during this time. Shakespeare also lives on in New Orleans’s street theater of Mardi Gras. To this day, parading krewes make great use of literary and mythological sources in planning the themes of their parades and in designing their floats. In the 19th century the themes were even more erudite and occasionally used Shakespeare as inspiration. The exhibition features original designs such as Momus’s 1879 float inspired by A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Hermes’s Lady Macbeth tribute from its 1949 parade. A Times-Picayune bulletin illustrates each float from Comus’s 1898 parade, themed “Scenes from Shakespeare,” and viewers can compare the newspaper renderings with the original float designs, which were typically more stylized and fantastical. Other items on display will include materials relating to the Shakespeare Club in New Orleans, which had a building at the corner of Canal and present-day University Place. —ROBERT W. TICKNOR B. The Taming of the Shrew performance at Le Petit Theatre 1938; photogravure (process) 7950.61.277 C. Title float illustration (detail) from Comus Represents Scenes from Shakespeare byT. Fitzwilliam and Co., printer color lithograph from the Daily Picayune, Carnival bulletin February 22,1898 7984.726.3 ii D. Hamlet Shakespeare Society program 1886 by R. S. Day, draftsman; M. F. Dunn and Bro., lithographer; Shakespeare Society of New Orleans, publisher 7979.279 Spring 2016 5
New Orleans Quarterly 2016 Spring (07)