The Establishment Of Theatrical Activity In A Remote Settlement: Grand Rapids, Michigan 1827 To 1862.

Abstract

This study expands the body of knowledge of nineteenth-century American theatre, specifically, provincial theatre at mid-century. Professional legitimate theatre receives primary emphasis; amateur theatricals and professional entertainments related to theatre receive secondary emphasis. The study begins with 1827, when Grand Rapids was founded, and ends with 1862, when theatre, though well established in the city, was temporarily halted by the Civil War. Chapter I is an introduction. Chapter II outlines, in overlapping chronologies, school exhibitions, quasi-theatrical entertainments, moral debates regarding theatre, and amateur civic theatricals. Chapter III chronicles professional acting troupes, repertoires, managers and management; halls used by troupes, including the city's first opera house, are described. Chapter IV profiles leading performers. Chapter V summarizes and concludes the study. Appendices include lists of repertoires by company, performers and their roles, and selected news items. Grand Rapids was visited by fifteen professional touring troupes between 1849 and 1862. On three occasions, beginning in 1856, attempts were made to establish a permanent resident company. Some players vacationed in the area; others made it their home. In the summer of 1857, two professional companies competed for the attention of the Grand Rapids audience. The city was not only attractive to touring companies, but they were welcomed. Amateur theatricals were popular in Grand Rapids from 1838 on, and the first attempt at civic theatre flourished prior to the Civil War. Leading citizens, including pastors as well as newspaper editors, supported the moral, legitimate theatre. Improved transportation in the form of steamer service on the Grand River, a plank road from Kalamazoo, and, eventually, rail service, made the isolated community readily accessible to touring groups. Of particular interest to this study is the touring circuit which ran by waterway from Buffalo through Cleveland and Detroit to Milwaukee and Chicago and eventually led to Grand Haven, where companies boarded a river steamer which carried them to Grand Rapids. Later troupes played Grand Rapids as they traveled the Detroit, Grand Haven, Milwaukee Railroad, which included ferry service across Lake Michigan; Grand Rapids became an important center in the theatrical circuits which developed throughout the Great Lakes region.