AMERICAN HISTORY OF THEATER

Precolonial theater

Precolonial theatre wasn’t theatre in the sense that we think of it today—there were no "theatres" or "stages"—but there were powerful, performance-based traditions that served a range of cultural, spiritual, and educational functions.

Performance based without a stage

Precolonial theatre wasn’t theatre in the sense that we think of it today—there were no "theatres" or "stages"—but there were powerful, performance-based traditions that served a range of cultural, spiritual, and educational functions.

Examples of precolonial theater

Hopi Kochina Dances and sun dances

Banning of indigenous rituals

• Before independence, Puritan and British colonial governments discouraged Indigenous ceremonies.

• Later, the U.S. government (post-British rule) continued this with the Religious Crimes Code (1883), which banned Indigenous spiritual practices like the Sun Dance and Ghost Dance.

Assimilation

the conbination of native elements intot he mainstream british/american theater

The theater of neptune

basic plot: allegiance to the king

Effect of puritans

their religious beliefs made plays seem immoral and sinful, and if you watch them you are on the wrong path

William Penn

often explore significant moments in history, providing insight into the culture, values, and beliefs of people from different times and places. INFLUENCIAL QUAKER, DOES NOT LIKE THEATER

George Fox

founder of the Quaker faith, went as far as to say he believed music and the stage “burthened the pure life, and stirred up the people’s vanity,” implying that he believed theatre made it impossible for people to lead a “pure” life in pursuit of God.

Stamp act riot

british declared there would be new taxes on printed materials, people revolted in protest

Sons of liberty

protested against the stamp act

Continental congress

this was the decision making congress before the independence was drafted; said theater was immoral

The bear and the cub

first american play, debuted 1665

Centers of american drama

new york and philadelphia

stage yankees

with their eccentric New England dialect comedy, entertained audiences from Boston to New Orleans, from New York to London in the years between 1825 and 1850. They provided the creative energy for the development of an American-type character in early plays of native authorship.

plays exported to englad

the indian princess, the last of mohicans etc

Edwin Forrest

definition of macho man during this century, represented the american ideal of a man

Indian removal act

marked the completion of ethnically cleansing Indigenous peoples from east of the Mississippi River. In the years that followed, subsequent federal policies would continue to uproot Indigenous peoples, clear the way for additional U.S. expansion, and remove Native peoples from their communities.

Metamora

play where Edwin Forrest did black face, submitted by someone anonymously

William McReady

always plays the bad guy to Edwin Forrests’ character

The Shakespeare riots

these were caused by class unrest and the rivalry between William McReady and Edwin Forrest

Minstrel shows

usually comedy at the expense of black people; done by white people in blackface

Vaudeville shows

multiple unrelated acts; can be singing, dancing and humor

Federal Theater project

It was an effort ofthe administration of President Franklin Delano Rooseveltto provide work for unemployed professionals in the theater during the Great Depression which followed the stock market crash of October 1929.