Henry Jewett

Henry Jewett was an Australian-born actor whose career spanned Broadway performance and regional theatre leadership in the United States. He appeared on Broadway between 1894 and 1908, taking roles across a range of genres and styles. His Broadway credits included the musical The Girl from Home, the drama Monna Vanna, the comedy Twelfth Night, The Winter's Tale, and the play Camille, among other productions.

Following his Broadway years, Jewett established the Henry Jewett Players, a repertory theatre troupe based in Boston, Massachusetts, which operated from approximately the 1910s through 1930. The company moved through several Boston venues over its history, including the Boston Opera House around 1915, the Toy Theatre and Copley Theatre on Dartmouth Street from roughly 1916 to 1924, and the Repertory Theatre on Huntington Avenue from approximately 1925 to 1930. The Huntington Avenue theatre was built in 1925 specifically for the Jewett Players and was later purchased by Boston University in 1953; it is now home to the Huntington Theatre Company.

Jewett distinguished his organization from conventional stock companies by insisting it operate under the designation of a repertory theatre. In practice, the company followed the American model of staging each production for a week or more at a time rather than the European system of rotating multiple plays within a single week. A notable feature of the troupe's casting approach was that no single member was assigned permanently to leading roles; instead, performers moved between prominent and minor parts from production to production. Among the performers who worked with the Henry Jewett Players were Peg Entwistle and Conway Wingfield. The company continued operations until around 1930.