Playgoing, Patriotism, and the First Washington Theatres, 1800 - 1836
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ABSTRACT Title of Document: “TO THE ADVANTAGE OF THE CITY:” PLAYGOING, PATRIOTISM, AND THE FIRST WASHINGTON THEATRES, 1800 - 1836. AnnMarie T. Saunders, Ph.D., 2012 Directed By: Professor Heather S. Nathans, School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies In 1803, a group of budding civic leaders in the fledgling capital city of Washington D.C. laid the cornerstone for what they hoped would be the first truly "national" theatre of the United States. Yet their grandiose dreams for a playhouse encountered as many obstacles as the rest of the city in the first decades of its development. My project, "'To the Advantage of the City': Playgoing, Patriotism, and the first Washington Theatres, 1800- 1836," represents the first full-length scholarly study of Washington D.C. theatre during the early national period. In my work, I examine the complex networks of economic and political associations that facilitated the development the district's theatre culture. I map the numerous experiments, the sporadic successes, and the traumatic failures that nearly drove theatre from the nation's capital. I explore the ways in which the presumption that theatre could and would contribute to narratives of American nationalism may have contributed to the failures of the early Washington theatre efforts as well as the determination with which theatre proponents in the District worked to rise above these failures and incorporate theatre into the culture of the capital, and thus the nation. “TO THE ADVANTAGE OF THE CITY”: PLAYGOING, PATRIOTISM, AND THE FIRST WASHINGTON THEATRES, 1800 - 1836 By AnnMarie T. Saunders Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2012 Advisory Committee: Professor Heather S. Nathans, Chair Professor Richard J. Bell Professor Franklin J. Hildy Professor Whitman H. Ridgway Professor Daniel Maclean Wagner © Copyright by AnnMarie T. Saunders 2012 Dedication To my boys - my husband, Tony, and my sons, Jackson, Zachary and Maxwell. With your love and support, anything is possible. ii Acknowledgements This project evolved over several years and along the way many people and organizations helped me to realize the final product and deserve a great deal of thanks. First and foremost, I must thank Heather Nathans, whose enthusiasm for what was merely a class project motivated me to pursue this research. Your mentorship and boundless energy have inspired both my research and my teaching. Thank you for your wit and wisdom. You are truly a role model for me. The invaluable encouragement of the faculty members in the School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies Frank Hildy, Catherine Schuler, Faedra Carpenter, and Laurie Frederick-Meer fostered my development as a scholar. As someone who began her career as a theatre practitioner, I know that the conversations and challenges you provided are what enabled me to succeed as an academic. A great deal of thanks also goes to my peers at University of Maryland: Aaron Tobiason, who was never too busy to provide feedback and who lightened the load with his humor and friendship; Ashley Derr, Natalie Tenner, and Gina Pisasale, my writing partners and fellow travelers who made the toughest parts of the journey bearable just by being there; fellow Americanists Chris Martin, Douglas Jones, Matthew Shifflet, and Jess Krenek who provided a sounding board for many of my ideas; Heidi Temple for being my Library of Congress buddy; Rob Thompson, who reminded me that we are still artists; and Michelle Granshaw, my consummate conference buddy and dear friend, who always believed I could write this entire thing even when I had my doubts. I would also like to thank the librarians and archivists at the New York Historical Society, Library of Congress, University of Pennsylvania Special Collections, Historical iii Society of Pennsylvania, and the Historical Society of Washington, D.C. for their patience and interest in my project. Special thanks goes to Celia Daniel and her staff at the Howard University Founder’s Library who took considerable time to locate long-lost materials and went out of their way to provide a place for me to work during the several weeks I worked with the William Warren papers and journals in their possession. Certainly, I am indebted to the University of Maryland’s School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies for providing funding for my studies over the past five years, and the American Theatre and Drama Society and the UMD College of Arts and Humanities for travel grants to conduct archival research. Thank you to all my family and friends who provided much needed encouragement throughout this process. Thank you to my mother for her excellent proof reading skills, and to both my parents for their interest in my work. And above all, thank you to my husband and children. Writing a dissertation is a difficult process and would have been impossible for me without their love and support. My sons, Jackson and Zachary, thank you for understanding why I had to work so much and for giving me such unconditional affection. My husband Tony, thank you for being the world’s greatest father, my dearest friend, and phenomenal cheerleader. You kept me going when I was ready to quit; and for that, I am eternally grateful and eternally yours. iv Table of Contents Dedication…..……………………………………………………………………….…….ii Acknowledgements……………………......……………....……………...……..…...…..iii Table of Contents.....……………………………………………………........….…….......v Introduction…………………………………………………………………………….... 1 Chapter 1 – Playhouse Potential: Building the First Washington Theatre………….…...23 Chapter 2 – Raising “this interesting Infant of our growing Metropolis”…..……..…….74 Chapter 3 – A New Theatre, A New Start: the Second Washington Theatre………….126 Chapter 4 – “Worthy the Name of a Theatre”: National versus American…….………176 Conclusion………………………………………………………………...………..…..213 Appendix Bibliography v Introduction Four thousand one hundred and thirty eight. This is the number of theatrical performances I have been able to identify that were offered in Washington, D.C. between 1800 and 1836. This number includes productions by professional touring companies and amateur thespian groups; it encompasses multiple dramatic genres including tragedies and comedies, equestrian melodramas, scientific exhibitions, and harlequinade pantomimes. These performances occurred in hotels, assembly rooms, a circus, and three different playhouses for audiences made up of some of the most influential men in the nation as well as local tradesmen, women, children, and African Americans. Some of these years, especially early in the timeline, were completely devoid of theatrical amusement; others featured a steady stream of performances from beginning to end. What is perhaps most surprising about these four thousand one hundred and thirty eight productions is that despite the sheer number of performances, the variety of offerings, and the multiple venues and performing groups, no cohesive narrative of Washington’s theatre history exists. What records do survive are scattered among multiple resources and across varying disciplines. As a result, the history of the capital’s theatrical entertainments has existed only in fragments, making any assessment of its influence or importance impossible. Before I began this project, the only thing I knew about early Washington theatre was that Abraham Lincoln was murdered in one – a limited level of knowledge likely on par with that of most Americans. But as I researched, I found a rich cultural life, a variety of theatrical entertainments, and a group of motivated patrons all predating the mid-century tragedy at Ford’s Theatre. While four thousand one hundred and thirty eight 1 performances over thirty-six years may not be remarkable by contemporary standards, at the dawn of the nineteenth century in a city methodically planned but barely realized, the number is significant. That Washington had theatre is not necessarily surprising – theatrical entertainments were extremely popular in the early nineteenth century and most American cities of any size had seasonal offerings even if they could not support a proper playhouse or resident company. What is surprising is how early the District’s residents introduced theatre into the city’s historical narrative. Washington’s first theatrical performances began even before the federal government landed on the shores of the Potomac River. When the federal Congress arrived, the population was barely 3200, yet residents had already built a makeshift theatre in a landscape that boasted far more trees than buildings. A permanent playhouse followed only a few years later in 1804. This determination to build a playhouse in a city barely adequate to furnish the needs of its permanent and temporary residents raised the question of why members of the new Washington community were so eager to make a space for theatre in the capital. It also raised a more troubling historiographical question: why, in a city so frequently the subject of documentary narratives, was Washington’s theatrical life missing from the historical record? Washington’s status as the national capital raises intriguing questions for the theatre scholar. Was theatre different in the capital? If there were differences, were they the result of accident or design? Building a city from scratch is a big enterprise, especially one so highly idealized. The District was to be myth made manifest. The new national capital was designed to reflect the principles of the new nation laid out in its Constitution. Invariably, everything included in the city would be seen as representing the 2 nation merely by its location within the capital landscape. This would bring tough scrutiny on the buildings and institutions created there. As recent scholarship on capital cities attests, those cities are inherently representational, reflecting both enduring national principles (and thus, the larger nation itself) as well as current tides in political and national thought. Capital cities stand as privileged locations of national pride and models for the nation that they embody.