when was the first film production of a shakespeare play made
List of William Shakespeare screen adaptations As of August 2016[update], the Internet Movie Database lists Shakespeare as having writing credit on 1,292 films, including those under production but not yet released.[3] The earliest known production is King John from 1899.[4]
Theater of the United States Although a theater was built in Williamsburg, Virginia in 1716, and the original Dock Street Theatre opened in Charleston, South Carolina in 1736, the birth of professional theater in America may have begun when Lewis Hallam arrived with his theatrical company in Williamsburg in 1752.[2] Lewis and his brother William, who arrived in 1754, were the first to organize a complete company of actors in Europe and bring them to the colonies. They brought a repertoire of plays popular in London at the time, including Hamlet, Othello, The Recruiting Officer, and Richard III. The Merchant of Venice was their first performance, shown initially on September 15, 1752.[3] Encountering opposition from religious organizations, Hallam and his company left for Jamaica in 1754 or 1755.[citation needed] Soon after, Lewis Hallam, Jr., founded the American Company, opened a theater in New York, and presented the first professionally mounted American play—The Prince of Parthia, by Thomas Godfrey—in 1767.[4]