History of American Theater: From Colonial Roots to 19th Century

Unit 7: Origins of American Theater

17th and 18th Centuries

• First American play in English: William Berkeley’s The Lost Lady (1641).
• First play printed in America: Robert Hunter’s Androborus (1714).
• The Lewis Hallam troupe: Arrived in Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1752, performing several of Shakespeare’s plays.
• 1750s: Laws forbidding theater were passed in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island due to Puritan opposition.
• Late 18th Century: Construction of playhouses in cities such as New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Charleston.

Drama in the Post-Revolutionary Period

• Royall Tyler: Wrote the comedy The Contrast (1787), which explores the theme of two suitors and contrasts English and American character types, imitating Sheridan’s The Rivals.
• William Dunlap: A historian and painter who translated and adapted Kotzebue’s The Stranger (1798) and wrote the American tragedy Andre (1798). Based on revolutionary history, it featured George Washington and utilized American themes, a sentimental tone, and verse.
• Susanna Rowson: Focused on patriotic subjects and melodrama, notably Slaves in Algiers (1794).

American Drama in the 19th Century

• Yankee and Indian themes: John Augustus Stone’s Metamora (1829) featured frontiersmen, Pocahontas, and adaptations of J. Fenimore Cooper.
• Farce: Anna Cora Mowatt’s Fashion (1845) and works by William Dean Howells, following the styles of Goldsmith and Sheridan.
• Melodrama: Dion Boucicault’s The Octoroon (1859), a sensational melodrama.
• Romantic verse tragedy: George Henry Boker’s Francesca da Rimini (1853), revived in the 1880s by Laurence Barrett.

American Melodrama: Uncle Tom's Cabin

• Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852): Inspired numerous free adaptations known as “Tom shows” or “Tommers.”
• George L. Aiken’s version (1853): The best-known adaptation, featuring six acts, dialogue from the novel, and four musical numbers.
• Themes: Characterized by a sentimental antislavery position and the use of racial stereotypes such as “Mammy,” “pickaninny,” and “Uncle Tom.”

Popular Entertainment in the United States

• Showboats: Performances held on ships along the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. Known as “floating theaters,” the first was created by Chapman in 1831, with a rebirth in the 1870s featuring vaudeville and melodrama.

Minstrel Shows

• 1830s–1910s: A mixture of genres including farce, burlesque, and plantation traditions.
• Performances: Initially featured white actors with blackened faces, later including black actors.
• Impact: Contributed to the creation of racial archetypes and the romanticization of plantation life.