Charlotte Mary Sanford Barnes
Charlotte Mary Sanford Barnes was an American actress and playwright, perhaps best known for her play Octavia Bragaldi, or, The Confession. Aside from Anna Cora Mowatt Ritchie, she is considered the most successful female dramatist of early American theatre.
Early life
Barnes was born in Massachusetts, the daughter of actors John Barnes, a popular comedian, and Mary Greenhill Barnes, a distinguished tragic actress. She made her stage debut at the age of three on March 22, 1822 alongside her mother when they both appeared as mother and daughter characters in The Castle Spectre by Matthew Lewis.Career
At age sixteen, in the role of Angela in The Castle Spectre, Barnes made both her official debut, at the Tremont Theatre, Boston, and later her New York stage debut, on March 29, 1834. Her career as an actress received some acclaim, but some unfavorable comparisons with her distinguished mother.Playwright
Barnes was much more successful as a playwright than as an actress. Her first play was a stage adaptation of the novel The Last Days of Pompeii by Edward Bulwer-Lytton. It was well received at the prestigious Camp Theatre in New Orleans, Louisiana, where she had been performing with her parents. She also adapted the Joseph Holt Ingraham novel Lafitte, The Pirate of the Gulf, about the French Gulf of Mexico pirate Jean Lafitte who helped win the Battle of New Orleans. It premiered at the Camp in the spring of 1837 and proved to be quite popular, especially in the south, and was being performed as late as 1850.Barnes' first original play was the blank verse drama Octavia Bragaldi, or, The Confession, which took the Beauchamp–Sharp Tragedy and set it in 15th century Milan, a popular trope of the day. It premiered at the National Theatre in New York City on November 9, 1837 with Barnes in the title role. It was a success in both the United States and England, and Barnes and her husband performed in it many times, as late as 1854.