Melodrama Unveiled

by Grimsted, David

• ISBN13: 9780520059962
• ISBN10: 0520059964
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1988-04-01
• Publisher: Univ of California Pr on Demand

Summary

Now available in paperback for the first time, David Grimsted's Melodrama Unveiled explores early American drama to try to understand why such severely limited plays were so popular for so long. Concerned with both the plays and the dramatic settings that gave them life, Grimsted offers us rich descriptions of the interaction of performers, audiences, critics, managers, and stage mechanics. Because these plays had to appeal immediately and directly to diverse audiences, they provide dramatic clues to the least common denominator of social values and concerns. In considering both the context and content of popular culture, Grimsted's book suggests how theater reflected the rapidly changing society of antebellum America. Book jacket.

Author Biography

David Grimsted is Associate Professor of History at the University of Maryland

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. xi
Preface	p. xv
Abbreviations	p. xix
William Dunlap: the Corruption of an Enlightened Age	p. 1
The Critics: Men of God and Intellect	p. 22
Audiences: Gods, Gentlemen, and Groundlings	p. 46
Stages and Players: the work of Enchantment	p. 76
The Variety of Entertainments: this Motley Mixture	p. 99
Dramas from Earlier Periods: the Good Old Plays	p. 111
American Playwrights: in Search of a National Drama	p. 137
The Melodramatic Structure	p. 171
The Melodramatic Vision	p. 204
Appendixes	p. 249
Selected Bibliography	p. 263
Index	p. 279
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