Proquest Dissertations

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Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9” black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. Bell & Howell Information and Learning 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA 800-521-0600 UMI EDWTN BOOTH .\ND THE THEATRE OF REDEMPTION: AN EXPLORATION OF THE EFFECTS OF JOHN WTLKES BOOTH'S ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHANI LINCOLN ON EDWIN BOOTH'S ACTING STYLE DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Michael L. Mauldin, M. A. $ The Ohio State University 2000 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Professor Alan Woods, Adviser Professor Anthonv Hill Adviser Professor Joy Reilly Theatre Graduate Program UMI Number; 9994905 Copyright 2000 by Mauldin, Michael L. All rights reserved. UMI UMI Microform 9994905 Copyright 2001 by Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17. United States Code. Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O.Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Copyright by Michael L. Mauldin 2000 ABSTRACT Edwin Booth is generally regarded to be the preeminent American actor of the nineteenth centurv’. As a representative of theatrical culture of the Gilded Age, he matched Mark Twain and Henry James in literature. Henry Ford and Andrew Carnegie in industr\'. and served as a nationalistic archetype corresponding with Henry Irving for the British and Sarali Bernhardt for the French. Booth's history is ine.vtricably linked with the history of the United States through his familial connection with the assassin of Abraham Lincoln. Booth's brother John Wilkes Booth. However, acting theorists and theatre historians have failed to posit a connection between the assassination and a distinct shift in Edwin Booth's acting style from empathie realism to an intellectual dialectic. By applying sociosemiotic methodology and a psychohistoric approach, an anecdotal thick history emerges which demonstrates Edwin Booth decidedly shifted his acting style shortly following the assassination and his new techniques suggest he was motivated by a belief in theatre's efficacy corresponding to Nietzsche's formula for redemptive healing through the tragic effect. Edwin Booth's initial stylistic approach to acting was a reaction against the Heroic style practiced by his father Junius Brutus Booth. Based on his own more reflective disposition and his physical attributes. Booth adhered to a realist style which 11 was becoming critically popular in antebellum America. His closest associates encouraged him to pursue this style while instilling in him a sense of patriotic representation and moral imperative in his acting. He was identified with other actors of the realist school, and had achieved national recognition as a practitioner of this style by the mid 1860s. Following the assassination. Booth developed an acting style identified as overtly poetic, intellectual and emotionally distanced, concretizing his performance theories in the building of Booth's Theatre in New York in 1869. From that period until his retirement in 1891, Booth did not substantially deviate from his approach which consisted of positioning himself as author! ity) of the text he was interpreting and maintaining an opaque technique in his performance which engendered the perception of the character and the actor sharing an equal status in the fictive space. The public mythology which had been constructed around Edwin Booth since the assassination supported his Otherness, fostering a public idolization of the actor which amounted to deification. Recorded professional and personal impressionistic commentary suggests his performances had a didactic efficacy which was more strongly generated through the form of his theatrical presentation than through the content of his theatrical texts. At the time of his death, it was widely acknowledged that he was the last representative of American tragic acting, an effect which is defined as the ability to produce a cleansing affirmation of human existence correlative to Aristotle’s notion of catharsis 111 This work is dedicated to my mother Sara Mauldin and my sister Georgianna Yuijevic. who have supported me without flinching during my own style shift from that of professional to academic theatre. I also dedicate this labor of love and toil to Professor Rhythm McCarthy, who e.xemplifies the best of what those two endeavors truly mean. Finally, to the babies. Percy and Chloe. who are always happy to see me. IV ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 1 wish to thank my adviser, Alan Woods, tor his patience, suggestions, and support throughout this process. As I have begun to teach students of my own. I can see the profound influence he has had on my thinking, and for that I am grateful. I thank Ray Wemmiinger of the Hampden-Booth Theatre Collection at The Players for his insight, conversation, assistance in accessing the collection, and his delightful company during many hours spent in that blessed environment. I would also like to thank the research assistants of the Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute of The Ohio State University for their indefatigable devotion to the preser\ ation of our heritage. I am grateful to the faculty, staff and students of the Department of Theatre and Dance at Southwest Missouri State University, especially Dr. Robert Bradley and Gloria Reed. Finally. I would like to thank Edwin Booth for being. VTTA December 17. 1957 .......................................... Bom - Panama City. Florida 1993 ......................................................................M.A. Performance Studies. New York University 1980 - 1993 ...........................................................Professional actor/director in New York 1997 - present ...................................................... Assistant Professor of Theatre History.Criticism and Literature. Southwest Missouri State University PUBUCATIONS Michael Mauldin. “The Uncertain Path to Discovery: An Examination of Averroes' Concept of Uncertainty as a Catalyst for Effective .Audience Engagement.” Theatre Studies. 42 ( 1997). FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Theatre VI TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract ............................................................................................................................................. ii Dedication ...........................................................................................................................................iv Acknowledgments .............................................................................................................................. v V ita .........................................................................................................................................................vi Chapter I ...............................................................................................................................................1 Chapter 2 ............................................................................................................................................70 Chapter 3 .......................................................................................................................................... 152 Chapter 4 ..........................................................................................................................................205 Chapter 5 ..........................................................................................................................................325 Bibliography.....................................................................................................................................408 Vll CRAPTER 1 Edwin Booth is generally regarded to be the most popular American actor of the last half of the nineteenth century. As a representative of theatrical culture of the Gilded Age. he matches Mark Twain and Henry James in literature. Henry Ford and Andrew Carnegie in industry, and John L. Sullivan in sports. .As a nationalistic archetype, Americans regarded him as their international representative, corresponding to Henry Irv ing for the British and Sarah Bernhardt for the French.' The purpose of this study is to suggest that the acting style of Edwin Booth was directly affected by his brother's

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