Race and Realism in Edward Harrigan's Mulligan Guards series

In this dissertation I examine the written texts and performances of the original productions of Edward Harrigan's Mulligan Guard series as they intersected and embodied the presentation of race and Realism. My study considers the context of the period in which the plays premiered: 1879 -- 1884, beginning with the first full-length piece from the series: The Mulligan Guard Ball. Using race performance theory and the theories and history of Realism, I show how Harrigan's work figured prominently at a key point in the history of American theatre, embodying a plethora of contradictions: racism and progressivism; Realism and melodrama.;The two key terms to my study are "race" and "realism." Rather than imposing contemporary definitions onto these concepts, I examine the terms in their contemporaneous usages. I show how Edward Harrigan's work embodies the meeting point of Realism and the entertainments which held sway in America prior to the arrival of Realism. Harrigan, along with more "serious" dramatists, instilled an expectation for Realism on the stage, the ramifications of which are still felt in American theatre.;Harrigan's works enacted particular cross sections of New York life in very specific neighborhoods -- replete with the various denizens of these neighborhoods. Harrigan's Americans inhabit the poorer areas of working class New York and his portraits of these characters are extremely detailed in their wants, pursuits, peeves and drives. At the core of the Mulligan Guard series, and indeed most of Edward Harrigan's plays lies the depiction of the New York Irish community and, to a slightly lesser extent, the African American community. Surrounding these core groups stand a variety of ethnicities: German, Chinese, and Eastern European Jews.;Harrigan's approach to Realism is explored thoroughly through reportage of his productions, specifically that of the Mulligan Guard series, in light of Harrigan's own assertions as to his approach to his craft. I examine the use of Realism in regard to the depiction of race.;When considering the depiction of race, Harrigan's characters cannot literally be accepted as authentic because of the actors in the roles (White actors performing Black), but my study shows how authenticity of racial depiction was regarded in its own age.;Methodology. Because of the nature of this study, I combine research methods from a variety of scholars. I reconstruct the period in order to approach Harrigan's work historiographically. I examine not only the written text but the audience, demographics of New York City, other forms of entertainments at the time, critical writing, and illustrations.;Of chief importance to this study are the various collections and scrapbooks of Harrigan's work. The Billy Rose Theatre Collection at the New York Public Library has a vast collection of Harrigan's work, clippings, scripts, songs, and the like. Alicia Kae Koger's two-part exhaustive bibliography on Edward Harrigan is invaluable to this study.1 In addition to the collection in New York, Harrigan materials exist at various public and private libraries, particularly the Library of Congress.;1Alicia Kae Koger, "An Edward Harrigan Biography: Part I. Playscripts," in 19th Century Theatre 19, no. 1, (Summer, 1991): 29-44; Koger, "An Edward Harrigan Biography: Part II. Songs and Other Materials," in 19th Century Theatre 19, no. 2, (Winter, 1991): 104-29.