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with his children, he established an American theatrical dynasty that extends to the present day (playwright Christopher Durang, great-great-great grandson of John Durang). Durang is best remembered—if he is remembered—as a dancer, known for his hornpipe and other dance specialties, but he was also a puppeteer, actor, singer, musician, pyrotechnician, scene painter, circus clown, company manager, dancing master, and all-around handyman of the stage.
Durang’s life coincided with the early unfolding of a nation. He was born in 1768, in restless, colonial America. With the American Company in Philadelphia, he had the honor of playing before the nation’s first president. Durang performed during the War of 1812, turning his pyrotechnical skills toward munitions making. He died in 1822, when the nation and his home city were well established and a distinct American cultural identity had begun to emerge. He lived through, and commented on, these remarkable events, yet his Memoir is also rich in the fascinating detail of everyday life—the technologies of the stage, the modes and variability of travel, his fluid shifts between urban and rural cultures, his interest in new people, his homely mixture of pride and humility, his shrewd yet rarely unkind evaluations of colleagues, and many other themes.
The project of defining, demonstrating, and representing the American as a figure different from the European, as a character shaped by the experiences and values of a new and distinct world, began in earnest in Durang’s lifetime with American struggles against European rule. In the theater, dramatists grappled with creation of the Yankee character’s dialect, outlook, and physicality; political themes shaping the drama reflected American resistance to European domination; and American historical events provided plots for new plays. Americans were trying to find, and define, themselves. Pennsylvania-born Durang, creating and adapting his own work, carrying theater to new territory, facing an increasingly sophisticated audience, and infusing his performances with characters current to American life, responded to these forces.
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