Jane Scott (theatre manager)

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For the rock critic, see Jane Scott

Sketch of a scene from Jane Scott's 1816 play, The Old Oak Chest

Jane M. Scott (1779-1839) was a British theatre manager, performer, and playwright.

With her father, John Scott (1752–1838), Jane developed the Sans Pareil Theatre (later named the Adelphi), where they offered music and light shows. They gathered a theatrical company and by 1809 the theatre was licensed for musical entertainments, pantomime, and burletta.

Scott wrote more than fifty stage pieces in an array of genres: melodramas, pantomimes, farces, comic operettas, historical dramas, and adaptations, as well as translations.

The Sans Pareil was significant in the move towards "free" theatre and away from the monopolies that dominated licensed theatre at the time. Jacky Bratton credits Scott's role in London theatre: "She had her finger on the pulse of a new world of entertainment for all, and her management of the theatre she created is important for its responsive and intelligent reading of the new audiences and the provision of exciting work for them to enjoy."

Scott retired in 1819 and married John Davies Middleton (1790–1867). She lived in Surrey until her death, in 1839, aged 59 or 60, from breast cancer.

[edit] References

Bratton, Jacky. “Scott , Jane Margaret (bap. 1779, d. 1839).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. 30 Nov. 2006.
The Adelphi Theatre: The 1806-1807 Season