Melting Plots: Patterns of Racial and Ethnic Amalgamation in American Drama before Eugene O'Neill Author(s): Joyce Flynn

Reviewed work(s): Source: American Quarterly, Vol. 38, No. 3 (1986), pp. 417-438 Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2712675 . Accessed: 28/03/2012 11:30
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

The Johns Hopkins University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to American Quarterly.

http://www.jstor.org

MELTING PLOTS: PATTERNS OF RACIAL AND ETHNIC AMALGAMATION IN AMERICAN DRAMA BEFORE EUGENE O'NEILL
JOYCEFLYNN HarvardUniversity

and the ongoing The real historyof theatreis the historyof dramaticliterature overcomethe desireis to see thetheatre criticalresponsesitgenerates.Our greatest anti-theatrical prejudicein Americanletters. Arts -Editors, Performing Journal

THE 1983 EDITORIAL IN THE PERFORMINGARTS JOURNALIS INDICATIVE OF THE

a by to continues confront: neglect authors that problems dramaby American even and to genres a division, trained valueother of literature scholars American of definition the of concerning appropriate devoted, in theranks thegenerically and its literature performance, evidence an theatre, artthatis simultaneously the its American dramafrom beginnings through FirstWorld and context. text cultural in of history, Warhasbeenparticularly neglected thewriting America's thatthe tide is turning. severalrecentworksby historians suggest although and of for consideration thecontent implications Muchoftheimpetus thoughtful Americandrama has come fromhistorians.David of nineteenth-century as of the has Grimsted emphasized importance melodrama the "echo of the on of the society voiceless" andhas examined pressures democratic historically of Bruce McConachie has exploredthe connection American dramatists; violence.On the to melodramas economicvalues and mid-nineteenth-century

the of I am indebted colleagueswho aided thedevelopment thismanuscript: ASA Bibliography to at of ThomasLeonardof theUniversity California editor my Committee, especially indefatiguable JoelPorte,Eileen NelsonLimerick, Janice Levin,Patrician SusanGrigg, Radway,Harry Berkley; Ronald Walters,Zora Maynard, Mary Jo Barron,WilliamAlfred,RobertBrustein, Southern, Wright, Robert Mahard, Patricia Jeanne Newlin,Martha Berthoff, Yaeger,Warner Wilber, Shirley Kelleher,CharlesDunn, JamesHatch,Linda Bryer, John MarjoriePepe, RobinBaker,Jackson Harris,BetteMandl, Wertheim, BruceMcConachie,Trudier Sheila Hart,Albert WalshJenkins, Wilkins, RaynaGreen,Rosemarie Frederick NahmaSandrow, DeborahMcDowell,Zora Maynard, Matlaw,Paul and LydiaLiu, Myron Waltz,Bette AnneFarmer, Gwendolyn Meserve, Bank,Walter John Claire Fleming, MarvisVoelker,Karl Kroeber, CorneliaBrownWallin,JulesChametzky, not of are MarcMaufort, as always,PhilO'Leary. Anyerrors those theauthor, and, Raleigh, Henry hermuses.

418

Quarterly American

and others Ray Levine,ClaudiaD. Johnson, B. Browne side, Lawrence lighter for parodiesof Shakespeare their the have examined late nineteenth-century of demonstration the commonaudience's inclusiveculturebeforethe early I and into of highbrow lowbrow. division taste twentieth-century has drama in thepastsuffered whyearlyAmerican Thereare severalreasons The geniusof Eugene O'Neill has Studiesscholarship. neglectin American reasonhas been the but important to tended eclipsehis predecessors, another withtheirdetailed endeavor.Theatrehistorians, of balkanization scholarly to have tended be and actors,producers, companies of knowledge individual scholars interested potentially other away departments, from in isolated theatre and popularculture. history, social and intellectual ethnicity, of literature, for tradition its own sake or for dramatic of students theAmerican Would-be a with choice sources in are of phenomena confronted secondary evidence other sourcessuch in primary research nonliterary specialized forest, of treesversus comparisons broad-based fiscalrecords, etc.,2 versus newspapers, as programs, The concreteand culturalsignificance. and ultimate of theme,technique, their found have too rarely category research of findings thefirst meticulous the apartfrom who examine texts whilescholars place in a largerframework, of assessment thedrama'strue can conditions easilyerrin their performance of an The significance. needis to combine understanding bothstageanddrama analysis and or biographical local minutiae literary in research goes beyond that and and the that respectively, combines particular thepattern goes on to suggest of eventforour knowledge the surrounding of theimplications thetheatrical society. justthat, to are of culture nowin theposition begindoing Scholars American are drama aboutnineteenth-century and theatre becausetextsand information Not onlyhave and widelyavailablethaneverbefore.3 indexed morecentrally plays and backgroundinformation bibliographiesof nineteenth-century outsidemajor theyare now moreaccessibleto scholarsworking improved, in research the to contributions future The mostimportant libraries. research of of texts.The first these, collections dramatic area are two largemicrocard approximately Plays (1963), includes and of ThreeCenturies English American 1714and 1830alongwith between or first titles produced written 250 American or The playscan be accessedby author title titles. 5350 approximately English and American Plays: of index,ThreeCenturies English the through companion but guideexistsfortheEnglish, finder's A Checklist (1963); a morespecialized Playsof and English American project, larger A titles. second, nottheAmerican American dramasfrom and is Century, stillunderway includes theNineteenth 1977 are through 1900. American plays reproduced the years 1831 through considerations, ethnic of number characters, title,setting, by indexed author, etc., in Donald L. Hixon and Don A. Hennessee,eds., Nineteenth-Century for writing Guide(1977). Since someplaywrights Drama: A Finding American a or if maybe classedas English bornin England Ireland, audiences American An Century: Drama oftheNineteenth Ellis, ed., English James resource, related of Guide (1985) shouldproveuseful.The new availability Indexand Finding

Plots Melting

419

nineteenth-century to researchers reflected thefact dramas is in that nineteenthcentury plays are currently available in three textbookanthologies:The Longman Anthology American of Drama, ed. Lee A. Jacobus (1982); American Melodrama, Daniel C. Gerould(1983); and Nineteenth ed. Century American Plays,ed. Myron Matlaw(1984).4 As a bibliographical essay designedto introduce dramatic textsusefulto in scholars teachers adjacent and areasofAmerican this Studies, piecewilldeal with plays as primary sources, examining one enduring preoccupation of playwrights their and audiences:theportrayal racialand ethnic of mixture in American of society.The diversity the theatrical in repertoire urban,small areas at different town,rural,and frontier and pointsin the nineteenth early twentieth centuries cannot discussed be here;local histories thetheatre a of in givencity region or provide morereliable examinations thetheatrical of process and its interaction with specificaudiences. In addition,the simultaneous existence severalgenerations theatrical of of development, giventhesettlement of history so largea nation, makegeneralizations concerning "national"theatre misleading. theauthor this Yet of piecedoes notwishto suggest these that plays shouldbe considered only in relation each otherand not in relation to to performance aspects;theobjective of hereis to highlight usefulness some the early dramatictexts,now more readilyaccessible, for new directions in American and Studies teaching research. Scholarsand teachers in an developing interest thisunderutilized body of primary sourcesshould proceedto explore context well as content. way as One to do so is to takeadvantage other of newresources: research the on published of and have anthropology performance on what McConachieand Friedman labeledthe"aesthetic contract" between American and working-class audiences the producers theatrical of for presentations thoseaudiences.5 An increased interest thetheory dramaand performance reflected recent in of in is scholarly in whole issues on theory the EducationalTheatre activity: and its Journal, successorTheatre Journal;TheDrama Review'sspecial issues "Theatreand Social Sciences," "Theatrical Theory," "Structuralism," and "Semiotics/Analysis"; theoretical and for panels(forexample, theAmerican at Society Theatre ResearchConference theDivisionon Drama, ModernLanguage and Association, November and December1985, respectively). MarvinCarlson's Theoriesof the Theatre(1984) providesa historical overviewof dramatic whilethedirector/theorist theory, RichardSchechner to continues expandhis of and analysis theatre ritual: Ritual,Play and Performance (1976); Essayson Performance Theory, 1970-1976(1977); The End of Humanism (1982); and most Between Theatre Anthropology and recently, (1985).6 The drama/ritual continuum that Schechnerhas proposed is useful in themes and plotsare repeated thedramaof a given in explaining whycertain culture. theextent a drama To that becomes "ceremonious an observance, a act, or customary that involves procedure" communal on recognition thepartof its it ritual. Here anthropology theatre and and audience,7 movestoward intersect, thecareful observer learnmuch can abouttheassumptions tensions and beneath

420

American Quarterly

the In society, observer thesurface thetheatre's of society. thecase ofAmerican "innatepredilection maybe aidedbywhatJ. J. Healyhas labeledtheculture's "8 experience. for paradigmatic a modeofregistering the as American plays focusedon A considerable number nineteenth-century of the potentially racialandethnic relations examined newsocialarrangements and created by ethniccombinations and/orethniccoexistence.The recurring used to explorethetension and and symbols thefinite rangeof plotstrategies in that process inherent a multiethnic society suggest theexploration possibility American in decades.The for audiences different was itself ritualistic different on from and absorption dramas themselves a continuum plotsof ethnic arrange sort of stage mingling themelting-pot to separate-but-somewhat-equal groupings havecalledpluralism, social long that whattwentieth-century scientists suggest in wereintroduced print into before terms the pluralism melting andcultural pot ofthetwentieth To illustrate kindof information the theearlydecades century.9 the dramatic textscan provide,thisessay will survey thatnineteenth-century of in and more commonpatterns ethnicmixing nineteenth- earlytwentiethor, century plays thatwere given public productions in the case of most of of The hints an etiquette melting abolitionist melodramas, publicreadings. and pluralizing to playwrights emergeand the cruxesthatcompelAmerican to new are the renovate their inherited genres accommodate content wellworth 10 closerstudy. involved by and vary by groups The types ethnic of interaction both theethnic focuson "Indian" or white for thedateoftheplay.Dramasthat combinations, the matches white of men concerning prospective example, openly are positive and "Indian" womenduringthe early nineteenth-century romantic period, amused and playingupon the convention the time of JohnBrougham's by of at evasiveofthetheme in and burlesques Pocahontas Metamora mid-century, wake of the Civil War, and ultimately thatsuch the immediate concerned of in matches involvea tragic opposition whiteand "Indian" subcultures the new anthropological sense by the end of thenineteenth century the first and 1I1 decadeofthetwentieth. of drama'sportrayal racial and ethnic The earliestphase of the American the of involved appropriation someaspectsof Indianidentity by amalgamation colonists a device to differentiate own new North as their English-descended In first from of American at country. a drama performed identity that themother an and Dartmouth Collegein 1779,A Dialogue between Englishman an Indian Smith as by John (1752-1809),theIndianis portrayed thenaifbutpersuasive in a of civilizedmores, roleconsistent his function French with critic (English) in At a and English dramas that titles.12 first voice, opposeartandnature their to as the Indian soon became a visual alternative Englishcivilization well, the withmodes of life and dressclose to nature.This is providing colonists in dramasof theFrenchand Indian evident earlynineteenth-century historical and celebrate victory the of War,theAmerican Revolution, theWarof 1812that

Plots Melting

421

thatare partIndianand partEuropean,while in fighting costumes colonists 13 satirizingthe impracticaldress uniformsof the British troops. This of deviceofthedramas becamethecentral assimilation of presentation cultural of in first backwoodsman, popularized the1831production James theAmerican Nimrod the whichfeatured pugnacious KirkePaulding'sTheLion oftheWest, a characters inhabiting frontier of The Wildfire. sheerquantity rough-and-ready wanted playsof that suggests audiences two limbobetween cultures backwoods was popularin thelast thistype;thegenreof thefrontiersman stillsufficiently the actorFrankMayo with to of century provide famous quarter thenineteenth in years of well-paidemployment Frank HitchcockMurdoch's twenty-four Then Ahead.14 Go or Davy Crockett, Be SureYou'reRight, in whiteand Indianidentities a cultural of The initialusefulness blending culture for functions Indian soon of declaration independence gave wayto other American with dramas dealing one In andIndian characters. thenearly hundred of Indiansbetween1820 and 1850, mostplotsreduceto two patterns Indianon legitimacy past and to both of whichfunction confer whiteassimilation, Indian to future white efforts acquire Indian land.15 In the firstformula, wearyof war. The an chief in is authority presented a singlecharacter, elderly by perpetrated a by chiefis forced upon a finalwarpath some whiteatrocity, Duringthecourseof theplay theleader (nota whitegovernment). renegade ends or in his die, His isolated. children so that death battle heroicsuicide grows the confirmed Thisplotmovement the thefamily and scatters Indiannation. line belief the population nineteenth-century that Indian in early audience thepopular assimilation, and ofNorth was America vanishing doomed.An imageofcultural in principles theIndianleaderallowedthe of of theblending Indianand white in that they factwere of white urban audiences the1820sand 1830stheillusion to heirs thecontinent. thedying leader'sappointed a is This communication subtlysignaledin the textthrough gestureof The in daysof stageIndianchiefs. but inadvertent ubiquitous thefinal betrayal, of be may either acceptance some Europeantenet,such as Christian gesture eighteenthRogers'prophetic in to of opposition thetorturing captives Robert as closet drama Ponteach, or a gesturetoward universalism in century refuses character where title the or Carabasset, TheLast oftheNorridgewocks, him remind of his and whileon thewarpath killa mother childbecausethey to 16 The paradigmatic the dying Indian's gestureof own familyat home. Americaoccursin an 1827 dramaThe possessionof North white legitimizing Parke Drama in TwoActs,byGeorgeWashington A IndianProphecy, National Warhas andIndian the leaderfrom French Indian Custis.In thisplaya defeated his back from west-of-the-Mississippi the spent last weeksof his lifecrawling and Washington thenewnation: of exiletoproclaim specialdestiny George the
the his He and that TheGreat protects man, guides destiny. willbecome Chief Spirit of and [sic] hail himas thefounder a mighty of Nations, a peopleyetunborn 17 Empire!

422

American Quarterly

Sociopolitical capitulation nottheonlytheme. is The suggestion thedangers of ofcultural assimilation Indianwell-being present to is beneath surface the the of romantic play.In thepost-Civil Wardrama, appearance thedrunken the of male Indian theperiphery frontier at of the of playscaricatured effect theassimilation process theIndian on warrior. The second prominent imageofIndian/white stage in amalgamation American the dramabefore CivilWar was that thelove match of between young a Indian princessand a whiteEuropeanleader. The matchcomes about despitethe of interference theheroine's father the (notethat dignified of paterfamilias the first imageis heremocked) sometimes and despite suitofa young the maleofthe heroine's own nation. In short,the Pocahontasmythin many versions determined playwrights' the treatment Indianwomencharacters, of whether New Englandwomensuch as Pocahonte Joseph in Croswell'sA New World Planted,or TheAdventures theForefathers Landedin Plymouth of Who (1802) orDorothy Elderdice'sU-leh-la, Pocahontas Floridamore The a of than century later.18 Playwrights employed intermarriage a happyending, the as one that madepossible finale comedy, the of NewWorld-style:fullstageofIndians a and in Europeans a visionof social harmony contrasted that sharply withthefinal isolation themaleIndian of protagonist thefirst of formula. The appealto white audiences mayhavestemmed from fact the partly the that Indianheroine'sattraction and sympathy the whiteEuropeanalways to for involved betrayal herownrace. Likethedying a of chief, acknowledged she the fatedfuture dominance North of Americaby thoseof Europeandescent.Her of sacrifice hernation culture an adventurer and for from afaris theAmerican reenactment a conversion found theliterature many of tale in of countries and labeled by medieval scholars "The EnamouredMoslem Princess." The of marriage Pocahontas a European to enabledwhite audiences claimher,in to Philip Young's words,as "the mother us all"'9 and also to claim (not of incidentally) inheritance North of the America.The heroine thePocahontas of plays was theadolescent Pocahontas withfew exceptions; one prominent the nineteenth-century exception also the one prominentfemale-authored Pocahontas dramaof the century, Charlotte Cushman'sThe ForestPrincess (1848); butin theplaysby maleauthors projected the careerof Pocahontas the mother was always implied.20 The recognition the Indian male or the of possession theIndianwomanin marriage of of becameemblems desiredracial becauseof thelinkwiththeland and legitimacy; amalgamation the ultimately of burlesquing theromantic IndianplaybyJohn and Brougham CharlesWalcot andthetendency romantic content thedecadesafter CivilWar in awayfrom the banishedthe noble savage and the Pocahontas paradigmfromnew dramas achievingproduction (althoughEdwin Forreststill played JohnAugustus Stone'sMetamora crowdsuntilForrest to wentmad in 1884). In thewake of western Indianwarsand the 1890 proclamation theend of thefrontier, of the of prospects mythic Indian/white reconciliation were adversely affected. The

Plots Melting

423

An titlecharacter WilliamC. DeMille's Strongheart, American of ComedyDrama (1909), mayacknowledge attraction whiteculture attending the of by Columbia but his University, he ultimately turns backon that culture on the and whitewomanwho loves him to lead his people. Both Fawn Afraid("cute enough be Pocahontas")and Nat-u-ritch, David Belasco's TheGirlI Left to in Behind and EdwinRoyle's TheSquaw Man (1906) respectively, white Me love men,butbothdie, apparently freetheir to loversfrom conflict between a not racesbutbetween cultures, in Blackfoot white and American society theformer in play,Uteandwhite English 21 aristocracy thelatter. Far fromservingas the centerof myths interracial of reconciliation and marriage, marriageable the ethnic black22 heroandheroine thestage often on too were denied land, spouse, children-anystake in the country. With few the exceptions,23 ethnicblack protagonist nineteenth-century of dramaswas described light-colored, as often specifically or nearly totally indistinguishable fromwhitecharacters the same drama. The ethnicblack protagonist in of melodramawas thus already black-and-white: personification the a of amalgamation process,a focusofwhite audience and to uneasiness, a challenge thehypocrisy white of sexualmorality. (Even Othello Tilden entered uponwhat G. Edelsteinhas called the bronze age, beginning with EdmundKean's of lightening themaincharacter.)24 Plotsthatturned a protagonist's on small of proportion nonwhite blood reminded audiencethat gulfbetween the the the castes was small. Abolitionist whose plays were usually given dramatists, readingsratherthan full productions, employedthe mulattoprotagonist, the particularly mulatto as to heroine, a strategy evokesympathy a character for physically similar theaudience.25 to In the noncomic drama, no mulattoprotagonist was involved in a melodramatic that nothinge racialidentity. did on plot Despitetheprotagonist's virtual indistinguishability whitecharacters the same drama,survival from in often required and flight foreign exile. Though bothmulatto malesand females in occurred popular plays(andin moreliterary abolitionist closetdramas before Emancipation), female the protagonist by farmorepopular.Bothmaleand was femaleprotagonists were usuallyfoundin melodramas what representing the social scientistEverett Stonequisthas called the "crisis experience," summarized Judith by Berzon as the protagonist's to awakening the factof his/her marginality.26 "crisisexperience" themulatto The of female provided a particularly vulnerable heroinefor plots of endangered chastity, popular a nineteenth-century thatDavid Grimsted described personifying pattern has as virtuein the frailheroineand presenting threat virtue"in physical, the to specifically sexual,terms.27 Yet the vulnerability the mulatto of heroine to white malelustalso challenged limits themelodramatic the of genre:in slavery or in a society governed fugitive by slavelaws andbanson racialintermarriage, hersafety couldnoteasilybe assured. Thischallenge to several led of strategies attempted resolution necessarily that
'

424

American Quarterly

a endedwith safeand plots melodramatic that English comparable went beyond rather thana gave the heroinea funeral heroine.Some dramatists affianced popular version Dion Boucicault's of as wedding, in Z6e's suicidein thefirst or drama,TheOctoroon, Lifein Louisiana(1859) or in thewasting plantation of away of Helen neartheend of MaryPutnam'sThe Tragedy Errorand The than poetic dramapublishedrather of Tragedy Success, Putnam'stwo-part of exploration the here because of its multifaceted producedbut mentioned written be readaloud.28In to dramas those or of and themes strategies thestaged BeecherStowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin,or Life texts Harriet as suchabolitionist the dominated adaptations dramatic among the Lowly, whose unauthorized WilliamWells century, in populartheatres the secondhalfof the nineteenth and Brown'sTheEscape, orA LeapforFreedom, LydiaMariaChild'sTheStars heroineis alreadymarried.Her and Stripes,A Melo-Drama,the mulatto himself as spouse also flees slavery,distinguishing similarly complexioned slavesleft darker and than and prouder less compassionate theother presumably is In behind.29 later versionsof The Octoroon(the final 1891 manuscript its "Zde," emphasizing heroine)and in a turn-of-theretitled significantly does the black by dramaWinona PaulineHopkins, light-skinned heroine century her beloved,butthecouple in each case will live in Europeand marry white racialcode.30 Whenrelocation to no challenge theAmerican presents permanent her of the to the is ruled out,redesigning heroine free from constraints casteis an the one and the three dramas, before twoafter CivilWar,present "crisis option: Twain's Pudd'nheadWilson), supplying their in (compare experience" reverse documents provethem after that white heroines with surprise mulatto apparently
all.31

sans is The onlydramain whicha mulatto heroine alloweda happyending Jackwood Neighbor Townsend Trowbridge's exile witha whitefianceis John Jackwood allows novel.Neighbor of version Trowbridge's (1857), a dramatic the the fugitive slave Camilleto marry mostsociallyeligiblebachelorin the where hastaken Camille white, town she Apparently refuge. smallNew England beforethe surprising is alreadyaffectionately regardedby many residents of Slave that revelation her presenceamongthemis a violation the Fugitive the mustresist laws pointis thatgood people everywhere Law. Trowbridge's slave was movedby severalfugitive The author that upholdtheslave system. a cases involvingBoston "to construct storywith the one tabooed and at concealed(as was charged thetime)in thevery craftily abominated subject to heart it, a bombshell be explodedin theface of theunsuspecting. of in the a was Trowbridge notdisappointed thepublicreaction: play provoked in and factions theaudienceon between match proslavery antislavery shouting the morethan decadesafter CivilWarwerestill two Audiences night.32 opening of to tradition themixedblood heroine withthetheatrical familiar sufficiently presentedin Welland Hendrick's appreciatethe satire of racial attitudes

Melting Plots

425

burlesqueoperetta Pocahontas(1886). In Hendrick'sversionof the legend, Pocahontas mistaken an octoroon John is for by Smith'sfiancee,"a Practical Blonde"; but whenPocahontas turns to be Powhatan'schildby a white out mother, is shunned Mahogany,Smith'sblack banjo-playing she by servant: "Eh! So she's a half-breed, she?Den it's all up between for a stalwart, is us, I's I is."', in of Mulatto male protagonists nineteenth-century suffered drama problems that personalfreedom well, usuallyimprisonment brutaltreatment, as and resulted fromthe racial mixture theyembodied.Daniel Whitney's freeborn of is and in citizen Massachusetts imprisoned tortured a Southern in Warren jail (1850); George Harrisin George Aiken's stage adaptation Uncle Tom's of of Cabin, themostfamousof the manyunauthorized stageversions Stowe's novel,realizesat theplay's start that superior his intelligence onlyevoke will vicioustreatment hislegalmaster; in theobscure from and dramaTheCaptured Slave (1845), the mysterious Mr. Brown, whose racial identity never is resolved,is imprisoned, Warren,while visiting Southern like a city.34 The authorsof these abolitionist in plays were strategic theirchoice of black protagonists superiorto (but humblerthan) the plays' important white characters. superiority The involved areasofsensitivity emotion, and according to current theories thecomplementary of nature Anglo-Saxon African of and described Stowein herpreface Dred as the"two nations, types to the traits, by of twoexactly herorepresented opposite styles existence."The mulatto of the labeledmulatto combination thetwonations an emerging of into third explicitly all nations byStoweandlaterbyThomasDixon. StoweinDred describes three as "interlocked wild and singularrelations, in thatevolve every possible of of and combination romance." Duringthe months September Octoberin 1856, threeseparatedramatizations Dred opened in New York: at the of American National Theatre, Bowery the Theatre, Barnum's and Museum.35 For a briefperiodafter Civil War, the possibilities the posed by material involving black-and-white amalgamation could be exploredonstagewithout of committed increasing to someoftheprevious caution writers publicemotion createdOscar the Half Blood, againstslavery.In 1867, JamesSchoenberg which was a success at Wood's Theatre Comique and cast the mulatto two as the protagonist Gothic hero,a mandeeply wronged nearly decadesbefore play opens and capable of a lifelong quest for revengeas a result.Gothic have dangeroussecrets,and Oscar's is his true identity. The protagonists a and settings were breathtaking. disguises,plot turns Havingsettled family a of scorewith owners engineeringrevolt their Guadaloupe plantation by slaves, Oscar beginsthe play as a Frenchcommoner assumesthe identity but and for of privileges an Englishlord. The Alps formthe background a gradual reunion all living of members slaveand slaveowner, also provide of and family a metaphor thedepths Oscar's soul: for of

426

American Quarterly of a into the are that there abysses suchdepths ifyouthrew stone them noisethey in an I is heard. soulis such abyss. gaveout My the [sic]make reaching bottom not 36 no from gulf my of soul,yet stone the reached. nosound, groan the

becomes also mulatto, Oscardies, hisnewly discovered brother Ernst, Though to Frenchwoman affianced thewhite Claire; once again,thecouplewilllive in Europe,notAmerica. of thathad been employedin the The deliberate blurring racial identity in and in melodrama remained significant American literature againstslavery Proclamation the Civil War ended and entertainment the Emancipation after of slaves. One reasonwas thattheuse of melodramas fugitive contemporary black characters, practice a olderthanthe whitemenin blackface portraying As becomeinstitutionalized. the American had minstrelsy Revolution, through to eliteand popular gap first entertainmentemergeforthewidening between a the swept country bytheCivilWarhadevolvedinto and audiences, minstrelsy with Eileen Southern pointedout that has structured entertainment music.37 before1840, but that some black entertainers were involvedin minstrelsy Not the soon white after Civil War.38 minstrelsy becameoverwhelmingly until Postwar minstrel showsaddedblackface Irish,German, plainwhite, however. of on Jewish Chineseroles,andtheAmericanization immigrant groups the and in the of portrayal blackface. American stagetookplacedthrough filter negative was partof minstrelsy's attempt hold its to humor The addition immigrant of in theatres the 1870s, and necessitated urbanaudiencesagainstthe variety members to of conventions. Audience elaboration minstrelsy's grewaccustomed in the ethniccharacterizations the variety shorthand theatres; codingin the since the performer, minstrelshow required an additionalqualification of was to a regardless his own racial background, understood be presenting A was an blackcharacter. characterization thuspotentially amalgamwithone and as and as costume property plots Surviving ethnicity content another form. ethnicdialect as a signifier accompanying scriptsindicatethat ultimately and a entertainer viewedas a black was overrode blackface costume: blackface of characterization unlesshis speechemployed dialectfeatures another ethnic understood he was that case theaudience group(Irish,German, etc.), in which of of a group. 39 creating low comedy representationa member that of in was The significance the last development the projecting permanent on which becamea moreor less permanent "difference" blackimpersonations, which otherethnicidentities were represented without framethrough any of as for mingling theydid elsewhere, examplein possibility the identities' is ThomasStuart character half-Irish and Denison'sPatsyO'Wang,whosetitle on he his depending whether has most half-Chinese, accentand deportment or of racialmixtures the tea.40 mysterious The recently consumed whiskey green in about melodramas Muchthat beenwritten has werenotrepeated minstrelsy. of thatthe the social function the minstrel show in American life suggests to Nathan has Huggins locatedthe content, tended isolateblackethnicity. too, of the sourceof theminstrel stage'sappeal in itsbeing"patently antithesis the

Plots Melting

427

on freedom the self another andgreater conferred Ethic," a rolethat Protestant cork.41Black ethnicity withburnt his who performer transformed appearance thatwere and as was thusportrayed the oppositeof the attitudes behaviors a Americans, temporary success to nineteenth-century as perceived bringing their concerning ownplace in anxiety experiencing members relief audience for attitudes processthatfostered but mobilesociety, a socialization an upwardly blackAmericans. against of to conducive segregation anddiscrimination Thomas Dixon began to fade at the turnof the century, As minstrelsy Dixon's of "difference." further projectings unassimilable literary perpetrated bothcontributed (1905) novelsTheLeopard's Spots(1902) and The Clansman Virginia, in at produced Norfolk, episodesto hisdrama"The Clansman,"first at revised leasttwiceas a stageplay,though 1905and subsequently September, into combination of version all threeDixon workswas their themostfamous film Birthof a Nation (1915). The very idea of racial D. W. Griffith's in and dramawas to was amalgamation anathema Dixon: mixing his fiction on women blackmenand by to interracial rapesandrapeattempts white limited and malicious.The dramatic of adultsas inherently characterizations mulatto still film milder thanthenovels,nevertheless conveyed though silent versions, of its through assignment linessuchas "thegrip the Dixon's obsessions, drama girl's throat"and "a brood-of mulatto of theblackbeast's claws on a white suchas GeneralForrest characters brats" to dialoguespokenby high-ranking to shotsframed stimulate through the and Senator Stoneman respectively, film of and images ideasonthepart theviewer.42 comparable turn-of-thereasons, case, butfordiffering Dixon'spathology an extreme was blackof the concerning outcome interracial dramatists pessimistic were century within a of and-white romance aboutthecombination thetworacialstrains and 1893 drama,Sara B. unproduced An singlepersonality. obscureand perhaps the Groenvelt's"Otille the Quadroone,A Tragedyin Four Acts," treated as of "crisis experience"of Otille on her discovery her mixedancestry a with Otille's complete tragedy, revenge of plot retribution reminiscent Jacobean mother'sghost and a double death scene. Its heroine declaims against brand" beforeher deathin the play's foul and loathsome "miscegenation's In climactic scene.43 1909, EdwardSheldon's TheNiggerwithits apparently slavegrandmother, that of hero'sdiscovery he is thegrandson a quadroon white in first of the resembles conclusion DeMille's Strongheart, produced thesame year. Like DeMille's AmericanIndian graduateof Columbia University, in a Philip Morrowrenounces whitefianc&e orderto Sheldon'sprotagonist to Morrow begins to his devote himself bettering people.Also likeStrongheart, feelhimself from whites history: by separated
theah's a black gulfbetweenus-an' it's filledt' the brimwithsweat an' hate an' out blood! We can stretch our hands fromeithahside, but theywon't meet! An' even while we're tryin',don't we heah fromdown theah-miles down-comin' up the through centuries-thecrackof thewhiteman's whipan' thescream. . . . 44

428

American Quarterly

American playwrights the 1920sbalancedthegulfof history divided in that human love to createpowerful domestic Folk blackand white against tragedy. the black and whitetanglesof the southern dramatists portrayed complicated countryside townsin playslike Paul Green's White and Dresses,A Sorrowof FirstLove (1920), The End of the Row (1926), In Abraham'sBosom, The Tragedy a Southern of Negro(1926, 1927), The Goodbye (1928) and Georgia Douglas Johnson'sBlue Blood, A Folk Tragedy(1928). The theme of intermarriage receivedtreatment the New York stageby playwrights also on for whose habitual and subjectmatter was quite different who were writing audiences:Eugene O'Neill, exploring sophisticated love, madness,and his parents' troubledmarriage(All God's Chillun Got Wings), and Samson the between ethnic and Raphaelson, examining tension identity theacceptance in in and possible assimilation (White Man,A Tragedy Three Acts).WhileGreen of O'Neill andRaphaelson Johnson werewriting theSouth they knew, employed of as theassumedimpossibility theblack-and-white marriage a metaphorical toexplore andartistic dilemmas.45 device,a convention personal In less controversial and cases, late nineteenth- early twentieth-century of Americansfrequently saw playful,even ennobling,portrayals ethnic MadamPrinceton's a In an 1895 farce amalgamation. Temple Beauty, white of "in patron namedMiss Terwilliger presents herself theTemple'sspecialists to search of a complexion." The quest for varietyproducesmore than she for:she emerges witha face rendered half-brown and bargained permanently half-red. the whole, early twentieth-century On Americandramapresented mixing theform intermarriage in of among white ethnic groups positively, even An whentheunions also involved differences. exampleimportant for religious of on the influence its popularAmerican productions earlytwentieth-century Americanplaywrights (though its author was English-born) was Israel the intogeneral Zangwill'sTheMelting-Pot (1908), whichintroduced symbol hero David sees the melting as fusing and reshaping usage. The Jewish pot Americansfromall races, "Celt and Latin, Slav and Teuton,Greek and in his Syrian,-blackand yellow-" and writes American symphony, which of different kinds soundsorchestrate a glorious into swellof sound,in its many honor. David proves his belief in ethnicmelting marrying Russian the by of for in immigrant daughter thenobleresponsible thepogrom whichDavid's parentswere killed. Zangwill's play was parodiedin a 1918 comedy The In American Idea by Lily Carthew (real nameLillianHeydemann). Carthew's versionof the intermarriage theJewish heroine'sfamily, plot, aghastat her at betrothal one John to Kelly,discovers theplay's endthat"John Kelly" is an of a of American adaptation "Yan Kele Operchinsky," gesture assimilation becausepreferable thedeeper to unchallenged hisbride'sfamily, by apparently wouldhave involved. Comediesof white assimilation ethnic that intermarriage ethnic flourished whiletheimmigration wereopenand both intermarriage gates when theywere closed-witnessthe Irish-German matchof the supporting in characters Lochmullers EdwardHarrigan's the Guardcycleandthe Mulligan

Plots Melting

429

matchesof Edward Rose's Rosa Machree (1921) and Anne Irish-Jewish but examples abound, on thewholethe Nichols'Abie'sIrishRose (1925). Other was a whiteliterary not melting image,though the conceptof mixture, pot in Marita Bonner,suggested favorite. One black playwright the twenties, demand in pot allegorically ThePurpleFlower(1928) thatthemelting might combat.46 though mortal bloodsacrifice, attained blackorwhite and Another weretoward combination unity. tendencies Yet notall dramatic at ethnicity, firsta minorform,became increasingly mode of examining The twentieth century. newgenre theatre theearly by important theAmerican in an setting or against American groups members three moreethnic of portrayed limited of though future merging thegroups, any without emphasizing projected energy as might indicated partofa playwhoseprimary be mutual acculturation This newkindofplay,herecalledthedramaof themes. was allocated other to a by playwrights representedresponse American "cautiouscosmopolitanism," the life be to thecomplexities national and might said to have accompanied of from decadeof theCivil the on toward realism stage,dating growing tendency is date War. The exact starting forthedramaof "cautiouscosmopolitanism" but it is clear thatculturalpluralismin the drama (or hard to pinpoint, was a to membership," employ label coinedby ThomasFerraro) "multiethnic in in and quarter dramatic writing stagepractice thethird flourishing American of thenineteenth American playssuchas RoyallTyler'sTheContrast century. (1790) and Anna Cora Mowatt'sFashion, or Life in New York(1845) had to a ethnic origins enhance dramatis personaeofcontrasting previously featured typesas design.Yet theuse of comicethnic hierarchical comedyof manners of in language drama;thenew servants a tradition severalcenturies English is for of ethnic origins of modetookthepresence characters different American It juxtaposition. was a morethanhumorous and intended something granted in important the early subgenre thatbecame increasingly uniquely American beingEugeneO'Neill's its noted product serious twentieth-century drama, most TheIcemanCometh.47 for HoraceKallen'smetaphor theconcept out Werner Sollorshas pointed that of Kallen would later label "culturalpluralism"is in fact a rebuttal the of Zangwill'sThe central theprotagonist to "Americansymphony" metaphor in not but Kallenheard one swellofsound, a mingling which Melting-Pot.
its each ethnicgroup is the naturalinstrument, spiritand cultureare its themeand and disonances and discords of themall make up the melody, and the harmony of symphony civilization.48

of the and metaphorically specialized uniquecontribution each Kallenexpressed plays,especially comedies, ethnic in stance assumed popular is group;a similar of century. byAmerican dramatists thepreceding If burlesques were admittedas examples of the drama of "cautious and thenthe multiethnic characterization humorof John cosmopolitanism,"

430

Quarterly American

Brougham'sMetamora,Pocahontas, and Columbusel Filibustero!!might (1854). An qualify. earlyseriousexampleis TheDays of theKnow-Nothings of the depicts defeat theKnow-Nothings activities on Thissatire Know-Nothing an wood-sawyer, a of the throught cooperation an Irishbrick-maker,German are and Italian organ-grinder, a Jewishpeddler. Though the immigrants to and rough-and-ready, notadverse political to demonstrated be accent-ridden, the seems to be upheldwithin ethnicself-definition theirstrong corruption, in and to attempts gain employment dignity thenew country drama,and their The anonymous render them probably objects of audience sympathy. who playwright, signstheplay "By One Who Doesn'tKnow Much," cleverly private babblein their not Know-Nothings, theethnics, makesthenative-born language.49 for of setting contrasts "old" and "new" city The American was thenatural comedies of sunny Edward Harrigan's in century. immigrantsthelatenineteenth Guardcycleof his lifeon New York's LowerEast Side, particularly Mulligan Dan's Tribulations eightplaysfromTheMulliganGuardBall (1879) through and ethnicclashes amongthe Irish,German,and survival (1884) portrayed such as the Italian black residents; otherplays involved"new" immigrants and the400. of protagonist Reilly of GooganandtheJewish protagonist Waddy sketches plays and at least fifty-five of The majority Harrigan'sforty-three daily life of New York's lower classes, presented depictedthe multiethnic C. out, and productions music.As Robert Toll has pointed this ensemble though to an resembles overture GeorgeM. Cohan'sBroadway.50 pageant dramas also and early twentieth-century The late nineteenthin with of ethnic groups entertainments portrayals different contributed positive a between Some pageants51 occupied no-playwright's-land a regional emphasis. groups with their of The pluralism. point thepageants, melting andcultural plot tothenation, was of recitations eachgroup'sgifts in national costumes their and of pieces of past ethnic presentation yet thecelebration unity; thedetailed of reveredand history, the elaboratecostumes,and the ethos of difference ethnic seemed idealizeindividual to and effort expense) (evenat great preserved of civic The ofAmerican society. transitional rituals the identity a keyfeature as reassured likethedramasof "cautiouscosmopolitanism," movement, pageant from Southern and of the audiencesconcerning capacity thenew immigrants but from Far East forAmericanization, simultaneously the Eastern Europeand of and stressed differences origin culture. in awayfrom settings often of The drama cosmopolitanism flourished all-male or suchas bars, military mining campsor shipsof all womenand children52 avoided for actionand that that kinds, settings gave ampleopportunity realistic of of as the social consequences established plot patterns as the artistic well crew membersof O'Neill's S. S. The multinational interethnic romance. and are Glencairn givencarefulethnicdifferentiation in The HairyApe the intentions microcosmic explicit: directions makehismodified stage playwright's

Plots Melting

431

Perhapsrelatedare the "All thecivilizedwhiteraces are represented. the in beginning thedecadeafter frontier of dramas thewestern male-dominated or AcrosstheContinent, J. being James McCloskey's CivilWar,thebestknown ScenesfromNew YorkLifeand thePacificRailroad (1870), withits AngloDaly's blackandIndiancharacters Augustin and Italian, Saxon,Irish,German, Societyand of American Horizon,An OriginalDrama of Contemporaneous British, black,Indian, its PerilsinFiveActs(1871) with Anglo-Saxon, Frontier Jackson Yet if one acceptsFrederick Chinese,Irish,and Dutch population. from createda "compositenationality" that Turner'sargument the frontier were diverse groups, acting as a "crucible" in which "the immigrants liberated,and fused into a mixed race, English in neither Americanized, cannot be then dramas of the frontier nor characteristics,"53 nationality thesedramas the thesis, If pluralism. one accepts Turner of expressions cultural of plots," dramas racial,ethnic "melting places" ifnot"melting are implicitly andcultural into amalgamation a newsociety. was less obvious to the casual Ethnicblendingaway fromthe frontier life in unaffected national or groupwas left no but observer, was steady; ethnic as transformation,partof somedegreeof mutual on thestage.All underwent in life, dialectic American anda has Jules Chametsky called"a continuing what continuing process of becoming-a synthesisof pluralisticand unitary and in image reflected nineteenth- early The most important impulses."54 of a societyin search of a Americandrama was that twentieth-century scholars of the Understanding significance thisquestis a taskthat complexion. havejustbegun.
NOTES
Voiceless," in Anonymous 'David Grimsted, "Melodrama As the Echo of the Historically 1971), 80-98; see also N. ed. Americans, TamaraHareven(EnglewoodCliffs, J.: Prentice-Hall, Theater and Culture,1800-1850(Chicago: Univ. of American MelodramaUnveiled: Grimsted, Melodrama,"Diss. Univ. "EconomicValuesinPopular ChicagoPress,1968). BruceMcConachie, and Riots Melodrama Preindustrial in of 1977and "The Theatre theMob: Apocalyptic ofWisconsin in States,1830-1980, Audiences theUnited for New York" in Theatre Working-Class Antebellum Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1985), 17-46.Robert and Daniel Friedman (Westport, ed. McConachie Univ. America Century (New York: Oxford ShowinNineteenth C. Toll, Blacking Up: TheMinstrel 1975 is GeorgeF. Rehin,"The on through of review scholarship minstrelsy Press,1974). A useful of Lens," Journal American through Historian's the Negro Minstrelsy DarkerImage: American musicaland worksshed lighton minstrelsy's Studies,9 (Dec. 1975), 365-73. Two morerecent The Music of Black Eileen Southern, social function: and on minstrelsy's historical contexts and 1983); and GaryD. Engle's introduction A 2nd Americans: History, ed. (New York: Norton, Stage(BatonRouge: Louisiana the Minstrel notes ThisGrotesque to Essence:Playsfrom American in As Lemons,"Black Stereotypes Reflected PopularCulture, StateUniv. Press, 1978). J. Stanley stage the beyond 29 Quarterly, (Spring1977), 102-16,extends examination 1880-1929,"American Americanculture,see ConcerningShakespeare'spositionin nineteenth-century stereotypes. Lawrence Levine, "William Shakespeareand the AmericanPeople: A Study in Cultural AmericanHistoricalReview, 89 (Feb. 1984), 34-66; Claudia D. Johnson, Transformation," 21 Survey, American's'LightArtillery,'"Theatre The Democratic "Burlesqueof Shakespeare: Vaudeville NegroMinstrelsy," and in "Shakespeare American (1980), 49-62; andRay B. Browne, of 12 AmericanQuarterly, (Fall 1960), 374-91. Two doctoraldissertations the last decade

432

American Quarterly

T. to culture: Kenneth underscore attempt examinescripts relation the largernational the to in and Rainey,"The DramaofReconciliation, 1875-1900: The Place ofTheater Stagein theNational Drama A. Effort Reunion,"Diss. Ohio StateUniv. 1976; andRobert McDonald,"The Popular for State Univ. 1978. ofRepertoire, 1880-1914: Formula A Approach," Diss. Michigan As thearticle goes to press,Walter Meserve'sHeraldsofPromise:TheDrama of theAmerican Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1986) has just People in theAge of Jackson,1829-1849(Westport, serieson nineteenth-century American theatre, becomeavailable.Partof a projected multivolume The Heralds followsAn Emerging Entertainment: Drama of the AmericanPeople to 1828 (Bloomington: Indiana Univ.Press,1977). in of methods theatre history, Alan Woods, "Theatre see 2Foran outline sourcesand research Theatre Survey, (May 1971),46-57. 12 Reconstruction: Tentative StepsTowarda Methodology," represented play-lists in such as: 'Nineteenth-century American dramahas long been partially Plays,1830-1900," FredW. Atkinson, "EarlyAmerican Plays,1756-1830"and "LaterAmerican bothin ins. in theHarvardTheatre L. of Collection; Dodd, Catalogueof a Collection American Stage Plays, 1756-1885(New York, 1913); WilliamR. Dubois, comp., Englishand American Productions: Annotated An Checklist Prompt of Books,1800-1900(Boston:G. K. Hall, 1973); Ina 1916); Daniel Ten EyckFirkins, IndextoPlays, 1800-1926(New York:The H. WilsonCompany, Public Library Dramas in theNew York C. Haskell,A List ofAmerican (New York; New York PublicLibrary, Plays Printed 1714-1830:A Bibliographical 1916); FrankPierceHill, American Record (Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press, 1934); Isaac PerleyReed, "A List of Representative Characters in American Priorto 1870" in TheRealisticPresentation American of Plays Written F. NativeAmerican Plays Priorto Eighteen Seventy (Columbus:Ohio StateUniv., 1918); Robert Roden, Later American Plays, 1831-1900 (New York: The Dunlap Society, 1900); JohnC. The Anthony Poetry Stockbridge, MemorialCatalogue of the Harris Collectionof American Plays, (Providence:ProvidencePress Company,1886); and Oscar Wegelin,Early American Bornin or Poems Written Authors by 1714-1830:A Compilation theTitles Playsand Dramatic of of Collection Residing North in America Previousto 1830, 2nd ed. (New York: The Literary Press, listsofplayswith and date first performance first publication 1905). Arthur HobsonQuinnappends in A History theAmerican to of of Drama fromthe Beginning the Civil War and A History the Day, both2nd ed. (New York: AppletonAmerican Drama fromthe Civil War to the Present of American dramainclude Century-Crofts, 1943). Some specialized play-lists use in researching and An Bibliography Shakespearean of Burlesques, Henry Jacobs ClaudiaD. Johnson, Annotated E. Parodies,and Travesties (New York: Garland,1976) and JamesV. Hatch,Black Image on the American Stage: A Bibliography Plays and Musicals, 1770-1970 (New York: Drama Book of of who in and are Specialists, 1970). The catalogues publishers specialized playscripts dialogues also in America Century useful.See Madeleine Stern, B. Publishers Mass EntertainmentNineteenth for of offerings 46 nineteenth-century (Boston: G. K. Hall, 1980), for the history and principal of comicplaywright a omission thecontributionThomasStuart is Denison, publishing firms; notable andpublisher Chicagointhelatenineteenth in century. Americandramaand theatre have recently appeared, Researchguides to nineteenth-century include Don B. several part theGale Research as of Information GuideSeries.Gale titles Company's Sources(Detroit,1978); The Wilmeth, American Stage to WorldWarI: A Guide to Information A Sources (Detroit, and EnglishPopular Entertainment: Guide to Information idem,American Sources(Detroit, J. Drama to 1900: A GuidetoInformation American 1980); andWalter Meserve, on New York:CarlJ.Stratman's theatre outside early 1980). Two guidesconcentrate theAmerican New YorkCity(Chicago: Loyola Univ. Press, Theatre Bibliography theAmerican of Excluding A History: Bibliography (Metuchen, 1965), and Carl F. W. Larson,American RegionalTheatre Matlawgivea variety of N. J.: The Scarecrow edited Myron by Press,Inc., 1979). Two collections A TheAmerican Theatre: Sumof Its material: perspectives, manyof themon nineteenth-century Parts (New York: SamuelFrench, PopularEntertainment: Papers and Inc., 1971) and American Conn.: on PopularEntertainment (Westport, Proceedings theConference theHistory American of of Greenwood Press,1979). and American 4C. WilliamBergquist, Plays: A Checklist (New ed., ThreeCenturies English of York: Readex, 1963); idem,Englishand American Plays of theNineteenth Century (New York: Donald L. Hixon and Don A. Hennessee,Nineteenth-Century American Readex, forthcoming); Drama: A Finding Guide (Metuchen, J.: The Scarecrow N. Press,Inc., 1977); James Ellis, ed., An EnglishDrama of theNineteenth Century: Indexand FindingGuide (New Canaan, Conn.: Drama (New York: Anthology American of Readex, 1985); Lee A. Jacobus, ed., The Longman

Melting Plots

433

Longman,1982); Daniel C. Gerould,ed., American Melodrama(New York: Performing Arts Journal Publications, 1983); Myron American Matlaw,ed., Nineteenth Century Plays (New York: Applause Theatre BookPublishers, 1984). Presshasbeenpublishing Cambridge University smallanthologies individual of dramatists' works combined withusefulinformations chronologies its British and in and American Playwrights, 1750-1820 series under general editors Martin Banham Peter and Thomson. two of Unfortunately, usefulanthologies earlyAmerican dramaare now out of print: Early Six American Plays, 1798-1890,ed. WilliamCoyle and HarveyG. Damaser(Columbus:CharlesE. MerrillPublishing Company,1968) and Dramas fromthe AmericanTheatre,1762-1909,ed. Richard Moody(Cleveland:WorldPublishing Company, 1966,reissued Boston:Houghton-Mifflin Company, 1969). 5McConachie andFriedman, Theatre Working-Class for 4-5. Audiences, 6See Educational Theatre 26 Journal, (December1974); Theatre 37 Journal, (March 1985); The Drama Review, (Winter 21 1977) fora specialissue on theatrical For theory. a complete of listing specialtheme issuesof TheDrama Review, thefull-page see advertisement within current issuesfor backissuesavailablefrom M.I.T. Press;Marvin Carlson,Theories theTheatre: Historical A of and CriticalSurvey fromthe Greeksto the Present(Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, 1984); Richard Schechnerand Mady Schuman, eds., Ritual, Play and Performance: Readings in Social Science/Theatre (New York: SeaburyPress, 1976); RichardSchechner, Essays on Performance Theory, 1970-1976 (New York: DramaBook Specialists, 1977); idem,TheEnd ofHumanism (New York: Performing ArtsJournal Publications, 1982); idem, BetweenTheatreand Anthropology Univ.ofPennsylvania, (Philadelphia: 1985). Barnet al., Aspects theDrama: A Handbook et 7Sylvan of Brown Co., 1962), and (Boston:Little, 249. 8J.J. Healy, "Structuralism Applied:American and Literature Its Subordination Structure," to Ariel:A Review International of English 14 Literature, (April1983),39. 9Seenotes and48 belowfor 46 on sources both background terms. '0A note is necessary the concerning criteria involvedin selecting the plays. Limitedspace necessitates omissions, including mostdramas straightforward of immigrant assimilation (e.g. John Broughman's playsof American history withtheir Irishimmigrant in protagonists theprocessof assimilating Yankee initiative Irishhighspirits) favorof ethnicmixing a visuallymore to in of striking type.Ethnic type characters, especially servants, notdiscussed are unlessdirectly involved ina "melting plot" or ina stagesituation takes that them beyond function low comedy the of in types theEnglish of For comedy manners tradition. a critical that study surveys American early comedies ofmanners thecontext theEnglish in of comictradition, DanielF. Havens,TheColumbian see Muse of Comedy: TheDevelopment a NativeTradition EarlyAmerican in of Social Comedy, 1787-1845 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois Univ.Press,1973). See also DonaldT. Siebert, "RoyallTyler'sThe " Contrast theEnglish and of Comedy Manners, EarlyAmerican 13 Literature, (Spring 1978),3-11. "'The term (American) Indianis used in thisessayto evokethecultural construct projected upon theNorth American native and peoplesbyEuropeans their descendants. shouldbe understood It as within occurring quotation omitted marks, historical native hereafter; the peopleswillbe given name oftheir respective e. nations, g., Mohawks, etc. Wamponoags, '2The stageIndianhas been a popularresearch topicin Americadrama.See Arthur Hobson A Quinn, History theAmerican Dramafrom Beginnings theCivil War,chs. 6, 9, and 10; of the to LaurenceHutton, Curiosities theAmerican of Stage (New York, 1891), Act [sic] I; Constance Rourke,TheRootsofAmerican Culture and Other Essays (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1942), 2: 1; and idem,American Humor: Study theNationalCharacter A of (New York: Harcourt, Brace,and Co., 1931),97-98, 104-07;andAlbert Keiser,TheIndianinAmerican Literature (New York:Oxford Univ.Press,1933),ch. 8. RoyHarvey Pearce'sSavagism Civilization: Study and A of the Indian and theAmerican Mind (Baltimore: Johns HopkinsUniv. Press, 1965) devotesone to chapter drama but is usefulthroughout, is RichardMoody's AmericaTakes the Stage: as Romanticism American in Drama and Theatre,1750-1900(Bloomington: IndianaUniv. Press, book on theIndiandramas, 1965). The first Priscilla Sears' A Pillar ofFire To Follow:American IndianDramas, 1808-1859(BowlingGreen:PopularPress, 1982) is generally reliablethan less someoftherecent dissertations thesametime on period.Fora review thelatter, Joyce of see Flynn, "Academics on the Trail of the Stage 'Indian': A Review Essay," forthcoming Studiesin in American Indian Literature, (Spring 10 1986). JohnSmith, Dialogue between Englishman an Indian in Moody,Dramas fromthe A an and

434

American Quarterly

was performance playedby a New 7-8. The partof the "Indian" in thefirst Theatre, American has Watson Theatre Collection Williams Brown WallinofDartmouth's England"Indian". Cornelia at Theatre Dartmouth by sharedwithme an article HenryB. Williams,"The Eighteenth-Century College Bulletin,10 (April 1980), 68-89, whichgives background College," The Dartmouth The Sauvage,byLouis-Francois Arleqin and production. first on information theplaywright thefirst Parisin 1721andpublished des at was produced Le Theatre Italiens, de L'Isle de la Drevetiere, first in produced or Savage was first Cleland'sTombo-Chiqui, TheAmerican inParisthesameyear.John the in in London 1758andprinted LondonbyS. HooperandA. Morley sameyear. forces perhaps is of Indianto theHon. CaptainPendragon theBritish "3Alecture an unnamed by in difference dresscodes: ". . . youshouldappearin of concisestatement thetransatlantic themost which thesegarments, with dressed dressing-off for and likea warrior, notlikea rabbit theranks around wrapa blanket to pleasure theeye norease to thelimbs-puton themoccasins, giveneither like yourself a soldier, in through yournose and ears,feathers yourhead,and paint you,putrings withvermilion."MordecaiM. Noah, She WouldBe a Soldier,or The Plains of Chippewa,in 134. Theatre, the Moody,Dramasfrom American assertsRoger Allan Hall, 14' 'The number is productions staggering," melodrama of frontier Nineteenth Century Drama Classification," and types,"Frontier author a usefulessayof titles of of tales Research,7 (Spring1979), 27-38. The dramatizations Cooper's Leatherstocking Theatre W. Stuart the hereas easilyas underIndiandramas,swelling tidestillfurther. could be counted frontier" between 1849 western with"the middle of titles playsconcerned Hydecites66 verifiable Drama from1849 to 1917," Diss. of and 1917 in "The Representation the West in American and OtherPlays, Davy Crockett "Introduction," Univ. 1954, 57-59. HubertHeffner, Stanford A IndianaUniv. Press, 1963),4, xviii-xix. recent American's LostPlays (1940; rpt.Bloomington: The of collection essays,Davy Crockett: Man, theLegend,theLegacy,1786-1986,ed. MichaelA. an Univ. of TennesseePress, 1986), includes essay "MakingIt All Up: Davy Lofaro(Knoxville: in BoycHauck. Crockett theTheater"byRichard of 5Excluding dramatizations novels, the period yields two exceptionsthat deal with and Indian rather with than long-ago-and-faraway heroesofEnglish "Indian" affairs contemporary is but White of projection stillinvolved, theIndianprotagonists Spanishexploration theAmericas. and recognizable: of thatare stillculturally geographically are at least members Indiannations A Drama (New Haven, 1819); Brown Converted the Cherokee, Missionary Catherine Anonymous, 1821). (Philadelphia, andLewisDeffebach, Oolaita,or TheIndianHeroine inspired another (London,1766). Pontiac Ponteach, TheSavagesofAmerica or Rogers, '6Robert Macomb,to drama:Pontiac,or The Siege ofDetroit(Boston,1835), GeneralAlexander officer, Deering, D. Washington, C. in 1838. Nathaniel Theatre, at first actedbyU. S. Marines theNational A at Theatre, first produced thePortland Carabasset,or TheLast of theNorridgewocks, Tragedy, or leaderPhilip playsabouttheWamponoag 1830). The numerous Maine, 1831(Portland, Portland, (but performed possibly and the followthesamepattern, mostfamous mostfrequently Metacomet Stone's Metamora,or The Last of the the artistic nadirof the genre) being JohnAugustine New Yorkin 1831 (Moody,Dramas A at first Wamponoags, Tragedy, produced theParkTheatre, followthe Logan and Tecumseh Theatre, 205-28). PlaysaboutIndianpatriots the from American of Chief theCayuga Logan, TheLast oftheRace ofShikellemus, samepattern: Doddridge, Joseph (Buffaloe[sic] Creek, Virginia,1823); WilliamHenry production Nation, no recordof first A of (Avon, 1830); andRichard production Hosmer,TheFall of Tecumseh, Drama, no record first A at produced or or William Tecumseh, TheBattleoftheThames, NationalDrama, first Emmons, Tecumseh Tecumseh, version, 1838 (New York, 1836). Another theWalnut Philadelphia, Theater, for intended reading rather YearsSince,A Poem(New York,1842)was probably or TheWest Thirty than production. 1828), 35. Since this Parke Custis, The IndianProphecy (Georgetown, '7George Washington and Culture Werner Sollors'Beyond Ethnicity: Consent DescentinAmerican essaywas submitted, Univ. Press, 1986) has becomeavailable.See 107-10,118-29,fora divergent (New York: Oxford here. Sollors of less interpretation, associatedwithland rights, some of the textsenumerated Indians preferred as that with love adopted associates Indiancharacters courtly and theorizes whites in ancestors a questtolegitimize republicanism. Who 18 Joseph of A Planted,or TheAdventures theForefathers Landedin Croswell, New World of Elderdice,"U-leh-la,thePocahontas Florida," unpublished (Boston,1802); Dorothy Plymouth Florida. of Gainseville, Library, University Florida typescript,

Plots Melting

435

Bags Full: Essays in American of Young, "The Mother Us All: Pocahontas,"in Three '9Philip of 1973), 196, 195. Treatments thePocahontas Brace,Jovanovich, (New York: Harcourt, Fiction or The NelsonBarker, IndianPrincess, La James 1850include: stagebefore on legend theAmerican 1808); GeorgeWashington in Melo-drama ThreeActs(Philadelphia, Belle Sauvage,an Operatic A of Parke Custis, Pocahontas, or The Settlers Virginia, National Drama in ThreeActs in Hobson Quinn,7thed. Day, ed. Arthur Playsfrom1767 to thePresent American Representative Drama inFiveActs(New A Dale Owens,Pocahontas, Historical (New York,1938), 165-92;Robert Ago in Plays, M. York, 1837); and Charlotte S. Barnes,TheForestPrincess,or Two Centuries 1848). (Philadelphia, ProseandPoetry and as of America a female"Indian" has beencatalogued 20The persistent personification North Rayna Green, "The Only Good Indian: The Image of the Indianin analyzedby the folklorist Perplex:The Vernacular Culture," Diss. IndianaUniv. 1973, and "The Pocahontas American Review, 16 (Autumn1975), Image of Indian Women in AmericanCulture," Massachusetts in in terms as of the has Kolodny analyzed envisioning American female Freudian 698-714.Annette (ChapelHill: Life in in as TheLay oftheLand: Metaphor Experience History American and Letters of the haveexplored ramifications the Univ. of North CarolinaPress, 1975), and severalscholars of Personificationsthe "AmericaandHerFourSisters: imageinthevisualarts:ClareLeCorbeillier, Museumof ArtBulletin,19 (April 1961), 209-23; Four Partsof theWorld," The Metropolitan E. McClung Fleming, "The AmericanImage as Indian Princess, 1765-1783," Winterthur "FirstVisualImagesofNativeAmerica"in C. 2 Portfolio, (1965), 65-81; andWilliam Sturtevant, upon the Old, ed. Fredi Chiapelliet al. FirstImagesof America:The Impactof theNew World (Berkeley:Univ. of CaliforniaPress, 1976), 2:417-54. Mary Dearbornhas argued thatthe in motif otherethnic(black and Jewish) themebecomesa recurring Pocahontas intermarriage in Gender Ethnicity and 's in see women'swriting America, chs. 5 and6 ofPocahontas Daughters: Univ.Press,1985). Culture (New York:Oxford American Theatre, at 2'John first or Metamora, TheLastofthePollywogs, produced theAdelphi Brougham, New York in 1847 (Boston, n.d.) and Pocahontas,or The GentleSavage, firstproducedat Wallack's Theatre,New York, 1855 (New York: Samuel French, 1856); Charles Walcot, New York, at first produced Wallack'sTheater, Water, and Spirits Laughing Hiawatha,or Ardent An ComedyC. 1856(New York,SamuelFrench,1856); William DeMille, Strongheart, American 1909); New York, 1905(New York:SamuelFrench, at produced theHudsonTheatre, Drama,first at Behind Me, first produced theNew National Fyles, TheGirlI Left David Belasco and Franklin LostPlays,ed. GlennHughesand GeorgeSavage D. Washington, C., 1893 (In America's Theatre, IndianaUniv. Press, 1963], 18, 101-68),and EdwinMiltonRoyle,The [1940; rpt.Bloomington: 1905(New York,1906). Buffalo, at produced theStarTheatre, "SquawMan," first For in unsatisfactorythecase of blackAmericans. terms especially is of vocabulary ethnic 22The this amalgamation, in of purposes labelingthe mixedrace characters dramasof black-and-white and if to ancestry as allusion biological "Black/white" a precise inelegant as created term the author all of quadroon,and octoroon, of whichonce history mulatto, a termthatlacked the negative the in of mulatto Americathrough fractions ancestry. of (For a history theterm denoted specific a in States,Including see Reuter,TheMulatto the United century, EdwardByron earlytwentieth G. the [Boston:Richard Badger,1918], 11-14.) Study theMixedBlood Races Throughout World of mulatto a shorter as suggested However,an editorialrulinghas declaredmy termunwieldy, black. Blacktolower-case my and reference, reduced upper-case in is 23Anexception the shortdrama,"The Fugitives,"published The Star of Emancipation her withherfianceCarlosjust before slave heroine Iola is reunited (Boston,1841). The fugitive of characters No description Iola or other to crossestheborder Canadaandfreedom. physical family but for play was neverintended production, also becausethe because theshort is given,perhaps heroism. of rather human than in providence escapeplothereis treated terms religious in G. 24Tilden Edelstein,"Othello in America:The Drama of Racial Intermarriage" Region, (New York: Oxford M. ed. Race, and Reconstruction, J. MorganKousserand James McPherson Univ.Press,1982), 179-98. in Massachusetts of Literature," Brown, "A Century Negro Portraiture American 25Sterling see theatre, of playsin theAmerican 7 1966), 79. For an examination abolitionist Review, (Winter Drama . . . ," Diss. Univ. ofIowa 1963. For thecircumstances John Daniel Collins,"Abolitionist William see of author, WilliamEdwardFarrison, of publicreadings twoplaysby one abolitionist (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1969), 277-306. For the and Reformer WellsBrown:Author

436

American Quarterly

see authors, GeorgeM. by racialism"exploited manyabolitionist background the "romantic of Character and The Mind: TheDebate on Afro-American Frederickson, Black Image in the White Torchbooks, 1972),97-129. (New York:Harper Destiny, 1817-1914 as and CultureConflict in 26Everett Stonequist The MarginalMan: A Studyof Personality in R. Black Nor White:The MulattoCharacter American in summarized Judith Berzon,Neither Fiction (New York:NewYorkUniv.Press,1978), 120. 175. Melodrama Unveiled, 27Grimsted, American Plays, ed. or 28DionBoucicault,The Octoroon, Lifein Louisiana in Representation 1953), Arthur HobsonQuinn,7thed. (New York:Appleton-Century-Crofts, 369-98. LaterEnglish for a of employed happyending racialintermarriage Zbe and George. and American productions Theatre in John Degan summarizes alterations "How To End theOctoroon,"Educational A. the of of Tragedy Errors(Boston,1862) and Tragedy Journal, (May 1975), 170-77.MaryPutnam, 27 Success(Boston,1862). the L. Theatre, 349-96; 29George Aiken,UncleTom'sCabin in Moody,Dramasfrom American Plays in USA: Forty-Five William WellsBrown,TheEscape, or A LeapforFreedom Black Theater V. 1847-1974, James HatchandTed Shine(New York: FreePress,1974), ed. byBlackAmericans, A Bell (1858), 34-58; and Lydia Maria Child, TheStarsand Stripes, Melo-Dramain TheLiberty 122-85. of Collection theNew YorkPublic 30The "Zbe" is ownedbytheBillyRose Theatre manuscript of searchsinceearly1985; PaulineHopkins, and Library has beenmissing thesubject a staff but playscript, Special (unpublished firstproduction data concerning "Winona," contradictory A is of The script a simplification Hopkins'Winona, Talc of Fisk University Library). Collections, in 5 Magazine(Boston), American serialized TheColored and Negro LifeintheSouth theSouthwest, 348-58,and422-31. (1902), 29-41,97-110,177-87, in of to to of 31Inaddition the restoration theslave Perdita her nameand inheritance Tragedy titlecharacters: Bartley the Success, two otherdramastransform color and thusthefateof their Lost Plays, 14:199-248;and Lizzie Slave in Hughesand Savage, America's Campbell,The White or RareBookRoom,Library May Elwyn,"Millie theQuadroon, OutofBondage,"actors'edition, D. was addition themelodramatic to of Congress, Washington, C. The racialfactor theAmerican of or of the the through recovery lostdocuments through structure; elevation a lowlyprotagonist plays. in sceneswas a commonplace nineteenth-century improbable recognition Jackwood 32John Trowbridge, OwnStory T. (Boston,1903), 211, 223. The novelNeighbor My newlifeoflaborandlove,with world's the with Hector Camille"entering and upontheir concludes wondrous boy,offspring first-born, all to serene eyes . . . their prejudice frowns unknown their and version ends . their hearts . ." (Boston,1888),414. The dramatic oflove andbeauty, thrilling fond and in sister, brother, witha groupsurrounding Camille,who has found thelastscenean adopted in shout three cheers in father theJackwoods wellas a husband Hector.All on stageat thefinale as for "Freedom'strue champion" (New York,1857),72. Jackwood, Neighbor run" at by successin Bostonwas followed a "considerable long-running Neighbor Jackwood's the authorwas very displeasedwith the New York Barnum'sAmericanMuseum, although which the seemed himtoreduce playtoa farce. to production, 1886), 17. Pocahontas 33Welland Hendrick, (Chicago:T. S. DenisonandCompany, the Which the A in DesignedToIllustrate Protection 34Daniel Whitney, Warren, Tragedy FiveActs to of (Boston,1850); Aiken,Uncle Tom's Cabin, Federal UnionExtends Citizens Massachusetts The Slave(Buffalo, 1845). 360; andAnonymous, Captured Beecher Stowe,Dred,A Tale oftheGreatDismalSwamp(Boston,1856), 1, iii. Dred, 35Harriet dramatization was novel and its subsequent of the titlecharacter Stowe's second abolitionist is heroas well, Nina's half-brother, Harry. Harry, black" (1, 240), butthere a mulatto "intensely the like Bertin Langston yearslater,"had inherited violentand fiery Hughes's Mulattoeighty of father" (Dred,2, 143). passions his[white] between Dixon's work.For a livelyaccountof therelationships See note42 below concerning of on and race relations that ThomasDixon, see Leslie A. Fiedler,The Stowe's writing Southern Books, 1979),ch. 3, Inadvertent Epic: FromUncleTom'sCabinto Roots(New York: Touchstone of aboutthepopularity thestageversionof Dred, see David S. Hawes, 43-57. For information Univ. 1953, As and "JohnBrougham American Playwright Man of theTheatre,"Diss. Stanford 452-53. OscartheHalfBlood(New York,1867),28. 36James Schoenberg, Blacking Up, 18,57. 37Toll,

Plots Melting

437

1983), A 2nd The 38Eileen Southern, MusicofBlackAmericans: History, ed. (New York:Norton, 93-96. Essence:Playsfrom Minstrel the Stage,68-69. D. 39Gary Engle,ThisGrotesque a Mix-Up(Chicago:T. S. Stuart Denison,PatsyO'Wang,AnIrishFarce with Chinese 40Thomas Denison,1895). Univ. Press, 1971), 251, 253. See (New York: Oxford HarlemRenaissance 4'Nathan Huggins, in A of CorkIllusion the1920's inAmerica: Study Nostalgia," W. "The Burnt also Stanley White, 1971),530-50. 5 Journal PopularCulture, (Winter of 1865-1900(1902; Man's Burden, of A 42Thomas Dixon, TheLeopard'sSpots, Romance theWhite Romance theKu of An Press,1967)and TheClansman, Historical N. rpt. Ridgewood, J.: The Gregg typescript, Klux Klan (New York: Grossetand Dunlap, 1905); "The Clansman," unpublished da II, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 22; III, 25. See Durant Ponte,"The Theatre Collection, Harvard of in Birth a Studies Literature, (1957), 15-24.Concerning 2 Greatest oftheSouth," Tennessee Play with ": Analysis Together "The Birth a Nation A FormalShot-by-Shot of see Cuniberti, Nation, John make of Inc., 1979). Close-ups bothGus andSilas Lynch Publications, Microfiche p.: Research (N. 16 frames D1 857 67 Q [as to (see cleartherapethreat twomenare meant represent especially the her holdsElsie against will[21 E4 physically 16C10] and 16G11 895 67Z [as 16G6]forGus; Lynch to [16 by 116275B (as 21E2)], hasherguarded servants E7 to 16E9]; andattempts haveherdrugged in of is mulatto population evident Dixon's unconscious Gi 117775M]). The threat a dangerous [21 and Lydia) as overreaching housekeeper (Lynch,Stoneman's of characters presentation mulatto and See frames E9 to 2 F2, 6 C6 to6 C8, forLydia'sbehavior, 2 treacherous throughout. especially withSilas Lynch. frames the secondpart,"Reconstruction" her relationship of for theopening white menby the with young the children of More subtle Dixon's visualassociation themulatto is are (esp. 2 D7 83a 8A [as 2C12]: thechildren seen scenein thequarters grouping giventhedancing and impact, technique political of the in line proceeding a straight from men).For a discussion film The Vision': D.W. Griffith's Birth A of see MichaelPaul Rogin,"'The SwordBecameA Flaming thisarticleto my Sollors brought 9 Nation," Representations, (Winter1985), 150-95. Werner attention. "Otille the Quadroone,A Tragedyin Five Acts," (1893), unpublished 43SaraB. Groenvelt, D. sentiments 45, 46. 3, of Washington, C., 55. See similar Library Congress, typescript, An American Play in ThreeActs(New York: Macmillanand 44Edward Sheldon,The Nigger, 1910),255. Company, Form(New York: Harper 45See Paul Green'sOutoftheSouth:TheLifeofa People in Dramatic Road: SixPlaysfortheNegroTheatre (New York:R. M. andBrothers, 1939),idem,TheLonesome CarolinaPlays(New York:S. French, and Other and McBride Co., 1926),andidem,In theValley in One-Act Plays,ed. Frank MoreContemporary Blue Blood is anthologized Fifty 1928). Johnson's Got and (New Shay(New York:D. Appleton Co., 1928). EugeneO'Neill, All God's Chillun Wings in Acts(New York,1935). White Man,A Tragedy Three York,1924)andSamsonRaphaelson, (Chicago:T. S. Denison,1895); Temple Beauty of 46Thomas Stuart Denison,MadamPrinceton's 16 American Quarterly, (Spring1964), Pot: Fusionof Confusion?" PhilipGleason,"The Melting The (New York, 1932), 184-85,33; LillyCarthew, American 24; IsraelZangwill,TheMelting-Pot Idea (Boston,1918); EdwardEverett Rose, Rosa Machree(New York, 1921); and AnneNichols, is century so pot Abie's IrishRose (New York, 1937). The melting dramaof theearlytwentieth itself thetopic to Theatre devoted Conference extensive the1983Ohio StateUniversity that History of the "The MeltingPot: Dealing WithIt." Much ethnichumorconcerning Americanization of in was immigrants also contained anthologies dialoguessuch as Delia Haywood'sPritchard's ChoiceDialogues (Chicago, 1896) and H. ElliottMcBride'sMcBride'sAll KindsofDialogues: A of Conn., 1874). For theevolution Rose's Collection Original Humorous Dialogues (Danbury, of Rosa Machree,see Mari Kathleen all-Irish composite Sally in Our Alleyinto the Irish-Jewish Dilemmaof theAmerican The and Fielder,"Green and Gold Reconsidered: Identity Assimilation Rose" in Theatre in Studies,30 (1983-1984), IrishAs Reflected theDramas of EdwardEverett "The the the Studies contains selected of 29-42.Thisnumber Theatre papersfrom 1983conference, in Bonner'sThePurpleFlower,first It." Marita Pot: DealingWith published TheCrisisin Melting workswillbe published by USA, 202-07; hercollected 1928 is availablein Hatch,Black Theatre, of her Beacon Pressin 1987 under married Occomy.For an exploration the name,MaritaBonner of pot symbol,see WernerSollors, "The Rebirth All largerissues involvedin the melting 5 Pot . . . ," Prospects, (1980), 79-110. See Sollors, in Americans theGreatAmerican Melting will further toSollors'articles be made notes convenience, 77-81. Forthereader's Ethnicity, Beyond in tocorresponding numbers Beyond Ethnicity. page

438

American Quarterly

47Thomas Ferraroin conversation, May 1986; Ferraro'sdissertation, "Ethnic Passages," is nearing completion Yale. RoyallTyler,TheContrast, AnnaCora Mowatt, at and Fashion,orLifein New York, Moody,Dramasfrom American in the Theatre, 33-59and 317-47;EugeneO'Neill, The IcemanCometh Mastersof ModernDrama, ed. HaskellBlock and Robert in Shedd (New York: Random House, 1962),587-646. 48For an explanation "culturalpluralism,"see Horace Kallen, Cultural of Pluralism and the American Idea: An Essay in Social Philosophy (Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 1956), 46ff; Kallenas citedinSollors,Beyond 97. Ethnicity, A a 49Anonymous, Days oftheKnowNothings, Farce With Peep at theSecrets theOrder The of N. (Keyport, J., 1854), 1, 9. 50TheMulliganGuard cycle properincludesMulligan Guard Picnic, The MulliganGuard The Surprise,The MulliganGuard Christmas, MulliganGuard Chowder,The MulliganGuard The and Nominee, MulliganGuard Wedding, Cordelia'sAspirations, Dan's Tribulations, although in somecharacters from cycleplaysappearelsewhere Harrigan's the works.For Harrigan's of use ethnic mixesand misunderstandings, Richard see Moody,Ned Harrigan fromCorlear'sHook to Herald Square (Chicago: Nelson-Hall, Inc., 1980); Alicia Kae Koger, "A CriticalAnalysisof EdwardHarrigan's Comedy," Diss. Univ. of Michigan1984; and Warren ThomasBurns,"The Plays of Edward Green Harrigan: The Theatre of Intercultural Communication,"Diss. Pennsylvania StateUniv. 1969. RobertC. Toll, On With Show: The FirstCentury Show the of Business America in (New York:Oxford Univ.Press,1976), 185. of 5'For a typical pageantprocession ethnic groups,see EthelT. Rockwell'sChildren Old of as Wisconsin (Madison,1935),PartIV, 31ff. Rockwell was an important pageant author wellas the H. historian biographer. pageants Frederick American pageant movement's principal and The by Koch beginning withPageant of the Old NorthWest(1914) were veryinfluential because Koch and both DakotaPlaymakers, whosemost famous alumnus was taught playwriting founded theNorth MaxwellAnderson, theNorth and CarolinaPlaymakers, whosemostfamous playwriting graduate was Paul Green,founder the outdoordramamovement. early precursor the pageant of An of movement Nathan was Appleton's Centennial Movement, 1876 (Boston,1977). Nan Dunhamhas in of the and matter thepre-World War I American explored interaction patriotism ethnic subject pageantsin "Patriotism and Stability:Two Decades of AmericanPageantry,"unpublished manuscript, Cambridge, Mass. 52But female parallelsof ethnic contrast coexistence and also occurred; forexampleLouise see Latham Wilson'sA Parliament Servants ethnic of (Chicago,1901)with housemaid applicants Trudel Annabella Schmidt, Darling, MaggieCallahan. and 53Eugene O'Neill, SevenPlays of the Sea (New York: VintageBooks, 1972), 8-9; JamesJ. or McCloskey, AcrosstheContinent, Scenes from New York and thePacificRailroadinHughes Life and Savage, America'sLost Plays, 4: 65-114; Augustin Daly, Horizon,An OriginalDrama of and for Frontier PerilsinFiveActs(Privately Contemporary Society ofAmerican printed theauthor, The in 1885); Frederick Jackson Turner, Significance theFrontier American of History, Harold ed. P. Simonson (New York,1963),44. "Some Noteson Immigration, and 54Jules Chametsky, Ethnicity, Acculturation," MELUS, 11 (1984), 47.