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

to “discountenance and discourage every species of extravagance and dissipation,” including plays.⁴³

Having assessed the situation in the emerging American nation during the War of Independence, David Douglass removed the American Company to Jamaica. The company would not return in force to the mainland until January 1784, after the war. As John Durang’s son, theater historian Charles Durang, commented years later,

Meanwhile, Philadelphia’s appetite for theater was meagerly fed. Astonishingly, it was in this theatrical desert that John Durang developed his love for the stage.

Occasional lone professionals such as Mr. Templeman [Templeton?], a slack-wire dancer, appeared to light the dark theatrical landscape. Of this performer’s season in February and March 1780, Durang wrote, “The first wire dancer I ever saw was one Templeman who was most compleat in the art. He performed in the old Theatre South Street; the house was crowded every night” (11), and Durang was no doubt an audience regular. Templeman performed on the wire while playing musical instruments, sitting on a chair, juggling, and performing other tricks. Amateur groups, such as Alexander Quesnay’s students, gave a few performances at the Southwark in January 1782 and ’83.⁴⁵ Balls and parties, often led by American and French officers, enlivened the city, now the new nation’s capital. Civic events, such as that planned by patriot and painter Charles Willson Peale for January 1784 celebrating the Treaty of Paris (signed 4 December 1783), were permitted. This celebration left its mark on John Durang, who recalled the city’s illuminations, transparencies, decorations, and fireworks (9). What Durang failed to mention was that the fireworks set the well-oiled transparencies and arches ablaze, causing injury (including burns to Peale), and a spectator’s death.⁴⁶