Nearly all the presidents have enjoyed theatrical performance and sought it out. For more than two hundred years the president's White House stage has welcomed scores of singers, actors, and other artists. This issue of White House History begins an exploration of theater at the White House, spanning the field from opera to musical comedy to presidents and Shakespeare, with side visits to theater and the youngest first lady, Frances Folsom Cleveland; a glimpse of famously obnoxious theatrical guest Alexander Woollcott; and a comparison between Lincoln's White House and that other iconic Lincoln place, Ford's Theatre.