America’s Original Stage

Howard Dietz said it best: “The world is a stage, the stage is a world of entertainment.” The statement rings true at Charleston’s Dock Street Theatre: the country’s first facility built exclusively for theatrical performances. Founded in 1735, Dock Street introduced the country to opera; bringing a production of Flora to the stage for the first time in American history.

The Historic Dock Street Theatre’s background is incredibly robust. Over the years the theatre has played a part in a menagerie of momentous occasions. After being destroyed in the Great Fire of 1740, which took out much of Charleston’s French Quarter, the Planter Hotel was erected on the property in 1835 – and added the wrought iron balcony and sandstone columns which adorn the building’s facade to this day.

A number of notable characters have patronized Dock Street, including actor Junius Brutus Booth, father of John Wilkes Booth. African-American Civil War hero Robert Smalls, who stole a steamboat to aid the Union Fleet in blockading the Confederate-held R. Sumter, served as a waiter when the building housed the Planter Hotel.

In Sites & Sounds’ Charleston-based episode, guest artist Matthew Logan Vasquez shares that his great grandfather was at the theatre alongside Union troops in 1865 when it was announced onstage that the Civil War had ended.

After the Civil War, the building was set to be demolished. But in 1935 the property was made available to the City of Charleston, and thus became a theatre once again due in large part to local carpenters working as part of the Depression Era Works Progress Administration project.

Following its 1937 renovation the theatre celebrated a grand reopening, to be followed by a 2010 restoration spearheaded by the City of Charleston, which now owns and manages the theatre.

Entering its fourth century as the epicenter of Charletson’s creative culture, the Dock Street Theatre produces more than 100 performances a year; hosting over 49,000 patrons annually.

For more information on Dock Street Theatre, visit charlestonstage.com.