Bryn Mawr College Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr College Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies Faculty Research Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies and Scholarship 2015 Grecian Theater in Philadelphia, 1800-1870 Lee Pearcy Bryn Mawr College,
[email protected] Let us know how access to this document benefits ouy . Follow this and additional works at: http://repository.brynmawr.edu/classics_pubs Custom Citation Pearcy, Lee, "Grecian Theater in Philadelphia, 1800-1870," Oxford Handbook of Greek Drama in the Americas, eds. K. Bosher, F. Macintosh, J. McConnell, P. Rankine. Oxford University Press, 2015. This paper is posted at Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr College. http://repository.brynmawr.edu/classics_pubs/108 For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Grecian Theater in Philadelphia, 1800–1870 Oxford Handbooks Online Grecian Theater in Philadelphia, 1800–1870 Lee Pearcy The Oxford Handbook of Greek Drama in the Americas Edited by Kathryn Bosher, Fiona Macintosh, Justine McConnell, and Patrice Rankine Print Publication Date: Oct Subject: Classical Studies, Classical Reception 2015 Online Publication Date: Dec DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199661305.013.005 2015 Abstract and Keywords Between the death of President Washington and the Civil War, dramas set in ancient Greece or based on Greek models allowed Philadelphia audiences to simultaneously affirm and subvert their ideas about gender, race, and society. Greek drama on the Philadelphia stage before the 1880s was represented by adaptations, and often adaptations of adaptations, that are far from anything that a twenty-first-century audience would accept as Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, or Aristophanes. The reception of Ernst Legouvé’s Médée as both tragic drama and minstrel burlesque and responses to the real-life tragedy of Margaret Garner provide striking examples of receptions divided along the lines of race and class.