Mrs. John Wood
Mrs. John Wood (bap.
November 28,
1831–
January 11,
1915), born
Matilda Charlotte Vining, was an
English actress and
theatre manager. Born into a
theatrical family, Vining travelled the country as a
child actor. Over time, she developed a talent for
comedy.
In 1854, Vining married John Wood, an English actor. The couple moved to
Boston, Massachusetts, where they became involved in
American theatre. Her first part in the United States was Gertrude in
A Loan of a Lover on 11 September, 1854. The Woods played Boston for three seasons and for the first three months of their third, appeared at the
Wallack's Theatre in
New York City. New York was already the centre of American theatre, and Mrs. John Wood came to outshine her husband.
T. Allston Brown, a contemporary historian of the theatre , offers this explanation for her fame:
Mrs. John Wood was a very pretty woman, possessing a fine figure and an attractive face. Her style was excellent in everything she attempted. She read well, had a melodious voice, was affecting in pathetic scenes and lively in those of a cheerful character, was a graceful dancer, and, although her voice was not very strong, it was melodious and well cultivated. She possessed the artistic talent which satisfied every demand that could be made by the most rigid stickler for a high degree of merit in a theatrical artist.[Brown 155.]
Mr. and Mrs. John Wood again played Wallack's in the summer of 1857, then moved to
San Francisco,
California. There they played
Maguire's Opera House on 18 January, 1858. This season, Mrs. John Wood gained renown for her roles in
Hi-a-wa-tha; or, Ardent Spirit and Laughing Waters and
Love's Disguises. She may have managed two theatres during this period: the
Forrest Theatre in
Sacramento for a few weeks in 1858 and the
American Theatre in San Francisco from March 1859 to the beginning of summer.
In mid-1859, Mrs. John Wood parted ways with her husband, daughter, and mother and returned to New York. There she joined
Dion Boucicault's troupe at the
Winter Garden Theatre. Wood and Boucicault clashed, so Wood decided to tour New York independently for three seasons. She met
Laura Keene in the summer of 1860 while playing at Keene's playhouse, which was renamed the
Olympic Theatre in 1863. She managed
Jane English's Theatre from its reopening on 8 October, 1863. Soon after, she became manager of the Olympic, which changed its name to Mrs. John Wood's Olympic Theatre. She stayed there three seasons, during which she concentrated on
burlesques and
comedies. On 30 June, 1866, Mrs. John Wood departed for
England.
Wood continued her management career at the
St. James Theatre in London from 1869 until mid-1872. She then returned to the United States for the 1872-1873 season, then returned to England. Until her retirement in 1893, she managed a number of English theatres. She died in 1915.
* Brown, T. Allston (1903).
A History of the New York Stage: From the First Performance in 1732 to 1901. Dodd, Mead and Company.
* Roberts, Vera Mowry (1993).
The American Stage: Social and Economic Issues from the Colonial Period to the Present.New York: Cambridge University Press.
