Civil War Theater: Formal Organization

Dr. William Reardon is an assistant professor in Drama at S.U.I. where he teaches theater history and directs plays. He is currently serving as Book Review Editor for the Educational Theatre Journal and as Chairman of Graduate Projects for A.E.T.A. Civil War Theater: Formal Organization WILLIAM R. REARDON m most histories of theatrical activity in the United States, the effect of the Civil War upon drama and theater is cursorily treated. The casual reader—in fact the serious student—might readily gain the impression that the Civil War had little or no effect upon the American drama and the theater. In other articles in this issue of Civil War History, Professors O. G. Brockett, Lenyth Brockett, and Willard Welsh, dispel this illusion with reference to the drama. This article is primarily concerned with the effect of the Civil War on theatrical organization. Insofar as theatrical organization in America is concerned, there has been a gross misestimatkm of the changes wrought in our producing agencies as a result of the Civil War. True, the effect was not immediate —a statement which calls to mind the wry joke of minstrel vintage. Two colored men were having an argument, and in a fit of anger one whipped out a razor and slashed at his tormentor. "Ho," chortled the latter, "yo' missed me." The razor-wielder smiled grimly. "Yo' just try shakin' yo' haid, boy." While the final effect on theater was not as definitive as the above analogy might indicate, the impact of the Cfvil War was as sudden and as unrealized on the theater of its day. It is not overly surprising that our historians minimize this impact The average reader or theater-goer is prone to find such mundane aspects of theater as business, taxes, expenses, advertising, et al. rather dry topics. Certainly these aspects lack the glamour and excitement that adhere to the star or the play. But the hand behind these dry functions will usually indicate the type of performance which will appear on the stage thereby pointing out the "taste" of the American public insofar as that taste can be determined. 205 206 WILLIAM R. REARDON i Ik. . / I \ _ · Formal Organization207 Perhaps, then, it might be interesting to trace in a rather broad and general fashion, the varied types of organizations which were present in this country's theatricals. With an understanding of what we had before the Civil War, we may then be more capable of gauging the tremendous impact on theatrical organization which ultimately developed as a result of the Civil War activities. Theatrical performances in English in the colonies in the 17th century were quite understandably limited in number. The fierce grappling for existence left little time for leisure. Even in those days, however, there were people who refused to believe that life was all work and no play. (It must be admitted that the scholar is forced mainly to deductions at this point. ) There L·, for example, reason to believe that a rather crude masque was attempted at Merie Mounte within a decade after the landing at Plymouth. This attempt, if such it was, encountered a genuine lack of enthusiasm for repetition as Governor Bradford's words reveal And Morton became Lord of misrule, and maintained (as it were) a schoole of Athisme. . . . They aliso set up a May-pole, drinking and dancing aboute it ... as if they had anew revived and celebrated the feasts of the Roman Goddess Flora . . . Morton likewise (to shew his poetrie) composed sundry rimes and verses, some tending to lasciviousness, and others to the detraction and scandali of some persons, which he affixed to this idle or idoli May-polle. . . .* In addition, the presence of laws in the 17th century against play acting , mimicry, pageantry, pantomime, and virtually every possible form of theatrical expression are significant.* The conclusion is almost inevitable that any theatrical organization of this period in America was equivalent to that which existed on the Continent during the medieval period when jongleurs and troubadours kept alive the spirit of theater and mimicry . There were also some signs of amateur activity in Massachusetts and in Virginia, but they were rare. For...