Theatre, Culture and Temperance Reform in Nineteenth-Century America

Theatre, Culture and Temperance Reform in Nineteenth-Century America

by John W. Frick

Overview

John Frick examines the role of temperance drama in the overall scheme of American nineteenth-century theatre, using examples from mainstream productions and amateur theatricals. Nineteenth-century America witnessed a major movement against alcohol consumption when the temperance cause became one of national concern. As part of the temperance movement, a new genre of theatrical literature and performance developed, professional as well as amateur, to help publicize its beliefs. Frick also compares the American genre to its British counterpart.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780521072205
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Publication date: 08/14/2008
Series: Cambridge Studies in American Theatre and Drama , #17
Edition description: Reissue
Pages: 272
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

John W. Frick is Associate Professor of Drama at the University of Virginia. He is author of New York's First Theatrical Center: The Rialto at Union Square, co-editor of The Directory of Historic American Theatres and Theatrical Directors: A Biographical Dictionary and is a contributing author to The Cambridge History of American Theatre (1999). He has published numerous articles and reviews in, among others, The Drama Review, Theatre Journal, The Journal of American Drama and Theatre and The New England Theatre Journal. He has worked Off-Off Broadway as a dramaturg and as a stage manager with theatre and dance companies in New York.

Table of Contents

List of figures; Acknowledgements; Introduction: A complex causality of neglect; 1. 'He drank from the poisoned cup': temperance reform in nineteenth-century America; 2. 'Nine-tenths of all kindness …': literature, the theatre, and the spirit of reform; 3. 'Every odium within one word': early American temperance drama and British prototypes; 4. Reform comes to Broadway: temperance on America's mainstream stages; 5. 'In the halls': Temperance entertainments following the Civil War; 6. Epilogue: 'Theatrical 'Dry Rot'?': or what price the anti-saloon league?; Appendix: nineteenth-century temperance plays; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

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