Theatre on the American Frontier

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Nearly all accounts of American theater history for two centuries have focused, justifiably, on the landmark names, productions, and theaters of New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. As a result, the history of theater on the American frontier consists mainly of regional studies with only a limited scope. Moreover, many scholars of frontier theater have relied on the recollections of actor-managers Noah Ludlow and Sol Smith, the former muddled in his chronology and disdainful of his competitors, and the latter more interested in relating humorous anecdotes than factual accounts. Thomas A. Bogar's "Theater on the American Frontier" provides an overdue, comprehensive, balanced treatment of the accomplishments of figures in the transmontane West, most of whom migrated there from careers of mixed success in the East. From its origins at the close of the 1700s in Pittsburgh, New Orleans, and Louisville, frontier theater grew by the close of the 1800s to encompass more than a dozen centers of vibrant theatrical activity, including Cincinnati, St. Louis, Natchez, Lexington, Nashville, Mobile, San Francisco, Sacramento, Detroit, and Chicago. In addition to Ludlow and Smith, Bogar explains the formidable accomplishments of Luke Usher and his nephew Noble Luke Usher, James Douglass, William and Sophia Turner, the Samuel Drake family, notably Fanny Denny Drake, Joshua Collins and William Jones, James Caldwell, and Sarah Kirby Stark. Their audiences-mainly pioneers struggling with the hardships of establishing a life in the backcountry-enjoyed the comedies of George Colman the Younger and John O'Keeffe, thrilling melodramas, and even the tragedies of William Shakespeare. Enacting leads in these were daring actors who ventured into this challenging and unfamiliar territory, including Thomas Abthorpe Cooper, Junius Brutus Booth, and the young Edwin Forrest and Edwin Booth. Bogar's study is a history of professional drama in the American hinterlands and life on the nation's early frontier. It is certain to be of interest to historians and general readers interested in the origins and development of American theater"--