Colonial Period in America What
Colonial Period in America
Introduction
Question ONE: What factors during the Colonial period hindered or promoted national identity? A what point did nationalism become a major influence – why?
The national identity of the young nation was formed as time went on and it became clear that the mother country, England, was just not relevant to the needs of the colonists, and in fact the king had become an impediment to the sense of nation for America. In the book Performing Patriotism: National identity in the Colonial and Revolutionary American Theatre, the author, Jason Shaffer, discusses the theatre – college plays, the occasional street theatre-based protests by the Sons of Liberty, and the "closet dramas" – during the colonial and Revolutionary periods. Reviewing the book in the peer-reviewed publication, Theatre History Studies, critic Odai Johnson comments that while Shaffer's work was not inclusive of all the theatre during the colonial period, Shaffer did present about half of the plays that were produced in early America.
One of those plays, Cato, by John Addison, was performed on May 10, 1774, in Charleston, South Carolina, and was the last "patriotic" production prior to the Revolutionary War, Johnson explains. At that very time in early American history, Johnson points out, Boston Harbor was "…under a blockade" and in two months the Continental Congress would be choosing delegates (Johnson, 2009, p. 235). Still, notwithstanding the tensions in the young country at the time, the young players in Cato "…were optimistic enough to secure a fifteen-year lease on the building" in Charleston, and they sent to England for more "scenes and actors" (Johnson, 236).