subs. (theatrical).—A strolling player: spec. a mouthing actor (see quot. 1886): also BARNSTORMING.
1834. Pall Mall Gazette, 6 June, 5, 1. If this be BARN-STORMING, Betterton and Garrick were BARN-STORMERS.
1886. Graphic, 10 April, 399. Travelling players who acted short and highly tragic pieces to audiences of clodpoles in any barn or shed they could get, used to be known as BARN-STORMERS, and a ranting, noisy style of acting and speaking is still called ‘barn-storming.’
1887. Referee, 21 August, 3, 1. Mr. Edward Terry has again been elected at the head of the poll as trustee of the charities of Barnes. He is not the first clever actor who has been known as a BARNES-STORMER. Ibid. (1901), 28 April, 5, 4. The new drama at the Ambigu—“Le Petit Muet”—by Henri Keroul, is slightly of the BARN-STORMING order.
