John Durang: Man of the American Stage By Lynn Matluck Brooks

including theater and dance. As one scholar put it, “Of the four major kinds of artistic activity in the North American colonies [painting, music, literature, and drama], the professional theatre was the least developed and the least desired.… In Quaker Philadelphia the theatre survived in a climate of scorn.”³⁴

Puritans, Quakers, and Presbyterians powerfully objected to the perceived dissipation and immorality depicted in plays and farces. In Pennsylvania, William Penn’s founding Great Law set fines and imprisonment for “whosoever shall introduce into this Province or frequent such rude and riotous sports and practices as prizes, stage-plays, masques, revels, bull-baitings, [or] cock-fightings.”³⁵ While friends of the theater argued that these were “Innocent Sports and Diversions,”³⁶ antitheater legislation spearheaded by the Quakers passed repeatedly, indicating not only ongoing opposition to such performances, but also the fact that these entertainments continued nonetheless. The earliest documentation of such performances dates from 1724, when rope dancing was advertised at a theater on Society Hill.³⁷ Sporadically, other theater events followed—puppet shows, “Magick Lanthorns,” and acting troupes.

As the non-Quaker population in Philadelphia grew, sentiment toward “gentility” and “refinement” grew too. The wealthy Anglican community sought something of the social and cultural whirl enjoyed in England. They built elegant mansions, employed dancing masters, and gave parties. By 1748 a Dancing Assembly was organized, counting among its subscribers some of the same gentlemen who, as legislators, voted against plays.³⁸ Matters came to a head in the mid-1750s when the London Company of Comedians, headed by Lewis Hallam Sr., appeared in Philadelphia after touring Virginia, Maryland, and New York. Hallam knew from the start that he would have to “face the batteries of the broad-brimmed and square-toe-shoed Quakers,”³⁹ and his application to perform stimulated a spirited letter-writing battle in local newspapers. To garner public support, the actors opened with charity benefits in April 1754, performing works with clear moral lessons, such as The Gamester by Edward Moore.