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American Theatre
The Beginning
Intro to Theatre
1700s
1709 – New York Province forbade “play
acting and other forms of disreputable
entertainment”
1716 – Williamsburg, VA – first theatre in
English colonies built – run by British
touring company (looked like theatres in
England)
April 24, 1767 – “American Company”
(which was British) presented first play
written by an American
Thomas Godfrey’s The Prince of Parthia
Play Booth Theatre
Open-air theatre on
Palace Green
First play in honor of
King’s birthday
American performing
tradition
William Levingston
started this one.
1768 The Beggar’s
Opera. (Playbill)
Students from William
and Mary performed
here. (W&M was
founded in 1693)
…and there was that war…
1774 – Continental Congress passed a
resolution discouraging “exhibitions of
shows, plays and other expensive
diversions and entertainments”
Many amateur productions during the
Revolutionary war, but professional actors
returned to England
After the war…
1782 – American Company returned
1787 – Royall Tyler’s The Contrast
was produced in New York
1789 – William Dunlap’s The Father
or American Shandyism
1794 – Philadelphia – Chestnut Street
Theatre - the first theater in the United
States built by entrepreneurs solely
as a venue for paying audiences. First
in America to use gas light instead of
oil or candles.
The First Chestnut Street Theatre - Philadelphia
Interior of Chestnut St. Theatre
Post-Revolution Trends
1800s
Desire to be “unique” and separate from England
– need independence in the arts as well as in
politics
Romanticism
1800s
A reaction against the strict rules of
neoclassical theatre/writing
Focused on imagination, freedom of form,
mood over content
Popular after revolutions
Melodrama
Popularized in America – mid century
Drama with (mood) music
Sentimental plots with stereotypical
characters – either all good or all bad
Strict moral code
Ex: Uncle Tom’s Cabin – 1852 – Harriet
Beecher Stowe
Minstrel Shows – America Mid-century
Done in “black face”
Racial stereotyping
Burlesque – farce – often sexual
Vaudeville – short acts – usually
singing and dancing – not as sexual
as burlesque
LIGHTING
GASLIGHT
1815 – London
Could control the flow of light, and
darken the audience
Totally revolutionized theatre
400 theatres burned in England and
America (Including the Chestnut St
Theatre in 1820)
More LIGHTING
Scottish surveyor,
engineer and politician
Thomas Drummond
invented the limelight in
1825.
Limelight first used for
performance in 1836.
Limelight was used in
the first theatrical
spotlights.
Example right from
London ca. 1860.
http://www.cbsnews.co
m/news/almanaclimelight/
Scenery
Simultaneous Sets
Showing 2 rooms on stage at once
(think about Thunder on Sycamore
Street)
Expansion from the East Coast
Railroad travel allowed performers
to get around
More theatres in smaller towns –
Theatrical Syndicates
Sidney, Ohio – Opera House
Realism
Began early in 1800s – peaked late and remained
strong in 1900s
Emphasis on depicting individuals and society as
realistically as possible
Became popular as scientific and psychological
discoveries challenged the romantic viewpoint
Took hold as middle class dominated life in
European and American culture
Norwegian Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House – prime
example
Naturalism
Late 1800s and early 1900s
Extreme form of realism made popular in
France by Emile Zola
Related to Darwin’s scientific principles
Drama should look for causes of “disease”
in society the way a doc looks for disease
in a patient – theatres should expose social
infection
Seen as an honest slice of life – both good
and bad
Surrealism
Made popular after WWI
Seeking a deeper meaning than the
conscious mind
Replaced realism with strange logic of
dreams
Influence on avant-garde and “theatre
of the absurd” movements
20th Century
Greater variety of content and form
BROADWAY
Professional – Community – College
– High School – Churches
Awards: The Tony Award (1947)
Organizations: Actor’s Equity
Association – theatre union (1913)
Local Theatres
Westerville: Curtain Players – Harlem
Rd
Central Ohio Community Theatres
–OCTA (Ohio Community Theatre
Association)
Emerald Players – Dublin
Imagine Productions – Columbus
Little Theatre off Broadway – Grove
City
Pickerington Community Theatre
Worthington Community Theatre
Central Ohio Pro Theatre
CATCO and CATCO IS KIDS
3 theatres in the Vern Riffe Center
Columbus Performing Arts Center
BROADWAY IN COLUMBUS