Jessie Bonstelle

Jessie Bonstelle
Bonstelle in The Great Question (1908)
Born	Laura Justine Bonesteel c. 1870 Greece, New York
Died	October 14, 1932 (aged 61–62) Detroit, United States
Occupation	Theater manager, director and actress

Laura Justine "Jessie" Bonstelle (c. 1870 – October 14, 1932) was an American theater director, actress, and drama company manager. Encouraged by her mother, she sang and performed in the theater from a young age; she went on to become a famous leading lady and made several performances on Broadway. Later she became a director, managing many stock companies, directing Broadway productions and training many young performers who went on to be famous actors. In 1925 she founded her own theater in Detroit. Reorganized in 1928 as the Detroit Civic Theatre, it was one of America's first civic theaters, and her methods influenced community theater projects elsewhere. She has been described as "one of the pioneering women stage directors in the early twentieth century".

Bonstelle was born to Helen and Joseph Bonesteel on her father's farm near the town of Greece, New York, the youngest of their eight children. Her exact date of birth is unknown, and she kept it a secret, but it was sometime in November 1869 – 1871. Originally named Bonesteel, later in life she changed it to Bonstelle after, according to legend, seeing it misspelled like that on a theater marquee.

Bonstelle's mother, who herself had wanted to be an actress, home-schooled her in reading, writing, singing, dancing, and even in reciting Shakespeare. Jessie's first public performance was singing temperance songs in church at the age of two years. Helen gave her daughter a passion for acting by often taking her to theaters in nearby Rochester. Around the age of ten Jessie auditioned for critic Thomas Keane, and with his encouragement she left on tour with a production of Bertha, the Beautiful Sewing Machine Girl, a melodrama. After returning home from California she briefly studied at Nazareth Academy, a convent school in Rochester. In 1886 she returned to the stage, working for local opera house owner Edward D. Stair and touring in his productions.

After the death of her parents in 1890, Bonstelle went to New York City, and in 1891 she joined the company of Fanny Janauschek, with whom she toured for a season. In 1892 she worked as an understudy and chorus member in Augustin Daly's company, but the season left her exhausted. However, in 1893 she married the actor Alexander Hamilton Stuart, who was twenty years older than her and Janauschek's leading man. Happily married, together they worked in Philadelphia's Forepaugh Stock Company for two years, before moving to Rochester, where Bonstelle played various roles and became an established leading lady. She was the leading lady of Philadelphia's Standard Stock Company during the 1898–99 season. Stuart died in 1911; Bonstelle would never remarry.