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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 October 2010
From October 20, 1774, when the Continental Congress passed a resolution outlawing theatrical activities in America, until the formation of the Lindsay-Wall troupe that began performing illegally in Maryland in 1781 and, under the management of Dennis Ryan, shifted its base of operations to New York in 1783, the theatre in America was in a near-dormant state. The only significant exceptions to this condition were the productions of the occupying British military in various American localities, and a few productions by American military officers given in response.
1 Seilhamer, George O., History of the American Theatre: During the Revolution and After, II, Philadelphia, 1889, p. 22.Google Scholar
2 However, Gordon Eugene Beck, in “British Military Theatricals in New York City During the Revolutionary War,” unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Illinois, 1964, suggests that officers may have been paid lor their performances.
3 The audience was composed of all segments of New York's population (even including some few Whigs, who otherwise thoroughly detested the British presence in America), although the civilian audience must have been smaller than the military audience on most occasions. According to the estimate of many historians (one of whom is Catton, Bruce, “Introduction” to The American Heritage Book of the Revolution, New York, 1971, p. 6.)Google Scholar, only one-third of the population of America in the mid-1770s actively favored the Revolution; another third, the Tories, hoped for a British victory, and the final third was uncommitted. Assuming that New York's sympathies closely resembled those of the country as a whole, it can be seen that no more than one-third of those civilians who had attended the theatre in New York before the British occupation of the city would have been likely to boycott the productions of the British officers.
4 The Royal Gazette, New York, published by James Rivington, Printer to the King's Most Excellent Majesty, June 6, 1781.
5 Ibid., October 25, 1780.
6 From various issues of The New York Gazette: and the Weekly Mercury and The Royal Gazette. 1780 and 1781.
7 The Royal Gazette, November 11, 1780.
8 Ibid., December 2, 1780.
9 Ibid., November 18, 1780.
10 Ibid., November 25, 1780.
11 Ibid., April 28, 1781.
12 Ibid., April 21, 1781.
13 The New York Gazette; and the Weekly Mercury, printed by Hugh Gaine, at the Bible and Crown, in Hanover Square, New York, November 27, 1780. Hereafter referred to as Mercury.
14 “General Account of Receipts and Disbursements for the two last Seasons,” New York Historical Society.
15 The Royal Gazette, December 30, 1730.
16 Ibid., April 25, 1781.
17 Ibid., December 9, 1780.
18 Ibid., April 28, 1781; Mercury, April 30, 1781.
19 The Royal Gazette, February 28, 1781.
20 Ibid., March 7, 1781.
21 Ibid., June 9, 1781.
22 Ibid., February 14, 1781.
23 Ibid., April 7, 1781.
24 Mercury, April 16, 1781.
25 The Royal Gazette, June 2, 1781.
26 Ibid., May 26, 1781.
27 Ibid., November 25, 1780.
28 Ibid., February 3, 1781.
29 Ibid., January 6, 1781.
30 Ibid., November 4, 1780.
31 Ibid., November 15, 1780.
32 Ibid., February 17, 1781.
33 Mercury, April 16 and 23, 1781.
34 Broadside, “General Account of Receipts and Disbursements for the two last Seasons,” 1782, New York Historical Society.
35 Receipt Book, Theatre Royal, 1779. New York Historical Society.
36 The Magazine of American History, December, 1880, vol. V, No. 6, p. 450.
37 This is the last of a series of articles by the same author, which, taken together, gives a comprehensive account of the theatre in America during the Revolution. The other articles can be found in Players (February-March, 1976), Theatre Survey (May, 1977), Restoration and 18th Century Theatre Research (May, 1977), Theatre Research International (October, 1978), Southern Theatre (Winter, 1978), The Southern Quarterly (Winter, 1980), Theatre Annual (1980), and New York History (April, 1981).
