Theatrical activity and other popular entertainment along the turnpikes of New York State from the end of the American Revolution to the beginning of the Civil War.
Item
-
Title
-
Theatrical activity and other popular entertainment along the turnpikes of New York State from the end of the American Revolution to the beginning of the Civil War.
-
Identifier
-
AAI9029942
-
identifier
-
9029942
-
Creator
-
Hrkach, John (Jack) Jerome.
-
Contributor
-
Adviser: Walter J. Meserve
-
Date
-
1990
-
Language
-
English
-
Publisher
-
City University of New York.
-
Subject
-
Theater | History, United States
-
Abstract
-
This dissertation charts the tracks of theatrical and other traveling entertainers along the turnpikes of Upstate New York from the earliest recorded activity to the Civil War. It focuses on ten villages on an east-west route along the system of roads known collectively as the Great Western Turnpike, one of the major routes west in ante-bellum America.;As the primary transportation systems shifted from roads and towards the Erie Canal, then railroads, the traveling entertainers also shifted their routes, in order to play to larger audiences and to make greater profits. Some of the villages under discussion, which had been powerful hubs in the system of turnpikes, were weakened economically and in population when the Erie Canal and/or the railroads took routes to the north or south of them.;Traveling players had to choose the places they played based on this transportational shift, but they faced other problems based on the dichotomy between locally generated entertainment and itinerant performers, begun by a natural distrust for strangers by earlier settlers and exacerbated by the most powerful institution of early American villages: religion. In an age when entertainment had to teach as well as delight, the theatre was the most common target for ministers of God, who frequently characterized playhouses as abodes of the devil. At the height of the temperance movement in America during the 1830s and 1840s, theatrical performers struggled against almost overwhelming odds, especially in Upstate New York, where more than a fair share of radical religious groups gathered during the years prior to the Civil War.;In spite of the difficulties made by the terrain and by human institutions, the traveling players kept coming, until, by the 1850s, the villages along the turnpikes hosted several troupes which boasted strong core companies as well as important visiting stars. Substantiated by a thorough reading of local newspapers, this study shows which theatrical companies played Central New York, what sort of theatre they presented, and how the audiences of the area received them and their plays, illuminating a neglected aspect of American theatre history and also shedding light on the early cultural life of the nation.
-
Type
-
dissertation
-
Source
-
PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
-
degree
-
Ph.D.
