Crowd pleasing moves: Acting technique, social performance, and the popularization of the nineteenth century American theatre

This dissertation explores the ways in which American acting reflected and incorporated various ideals of social performance that were common during the first half of the Nineteenth Century. In this unusual period in American theatre history, playhouses hosted mixed audiences who vied with one another for cultural dominance. While many American spectators did not stray very far from the cultural practices of their elite-minded European ancestors, others advocated for modes of social performance that more directly reflected the egalitarian ideals espoused in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.; As the century progressed, increasingly capitalistic production strategies combined with the rising power of America's expanding middle class to create a much less open theatrical experience. The vibrant, mixed playhouses were eventually replaced by separate venues patronized by relatively homogeneous groups of like-minded spectators. The so called highbrow middle-class theatres enjoyed the support of governmental protection and the cultural authority bestowed upon them by the increasingly hegemonic commercial middle class. This shift represented a cultural movement away from the "American" ideals of egalitarianism and instead reflected the nation's gradual adoption of the economic and cultural goals of imperial capitalism, a system embodied at its apex by the aristocratic monarchies of Western Europe.; The first chapter examines the dynamics of the mixed audiences that filled most American playhouses in the first half of the Nineteenth Century. The second chapter explores the acting styles that dominated those stages. It examines the imported Kemble/Siddons Grand Tradition, as well as the different ways in which that tradition was adopted by four prominent "American" actors: Anne Brunton Merry, Mary Ann Duff, Edwin Forrest, and John Randolph Scott. The third chapter examines the influence of capitalism on the American theatre in the form of the Star System, and the ways in which that influence changed over time. The fourth and final chapter examines the rising middle class as it slowly adopted cultural elements from the aristocratic, imperial cultures of Europe as well as the ways in which other Americans attempted to resist this movement.