American Theater

American Theater was one of the main sources of entertainment for American citizens. Theater has always been around America but wasn't fully developed until after the Civil War and by the beginning of the twentieth century it was fully thriving and even though it became influential around the world many plays used ideas from other countries like Europe and Asia. After the American revolution theater grew dramatically, with the American company returning and being joined by other English troupes. I think that one of the reasons that Americans didn't like theater before the revolution because they wanted to be different from Britain and this reminded them of it. When America expanded west so did theater travelling west with the rest of the nation and performing shows along the way. As theater grew more popular theaters started using famous foreign actors to make more money than there competitors, this was very successful. Most actors were English for the first half of the 19th century, but American actors were rapidly increasing. The most performed play was "Uncle Tom's Cabin", which was first a novel then it became a play. After the Civil War theater leaned more towards reality, with plays about day to day events and real settings. Another important part of theater was Burlesque which was originally made for men, but then developed into vaudeville. Motion pictures were a huge competitor against theater and once they started featuring sound theater attendance dropped drastically. Recently a big part of theater became the growth of legitamate regional theater. The American Theater has survived and persevered through many hardships, it will be interesting to see what happens to theater when we develope new technologies and better entertainment.

"American theater." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 28 Jan. 2010. .