Group D Blog 1
February 22, 2018, by Christiana
In the work of Nigel Cliff, The Shakespeare Riots “Chapter 10: Exit, Pursued by a B’hoy,” he recounts the foundation of the Astor Place Riots within the theatre. This account was much more detail specific, providing less of a historical context of the riots and more of a relevant perspective to the view of the people who had lived during this time. The essence of the work explains to the reader about history the actors and their feud, Macready and Forrest, which symbolized larger issues that sparked the riots. Cliff highlights the role of these actors in the riots and within the mainstream theater at this time. Their rivalry reminded me of the Broadway vs. Bowery feud.
In the work, I was interested at the power of theater as a medium for the people. The crowd is responsive to the performance of the actors, and the actors are respond in their performance. This type of exchange between performers and the audience rarely occurs in with the current media saturation. The piece discusses this change in the environment of the theater, which is much like today, silent. “In both buildings, there was a strange new sound from the audience: silence. No longer were interventions from the gallery tolerated; even hissing fell into desuetude. The working classes gravitated to the vaudeville houses where they were welcome, while the fashionable theatres weeded out the prostitutes, banned liquor, and drew in respectable families with advertisements for fountains of iced water.” (246).
I also found the rival performances by Macready and Forrest of the same show to be a tactic conducted by marketers even today. A modern example would be the Stagecoach Festival following the Coachella Valley Music festival, as a response to the excluded audience that does not attend the more mainstream-pop festival and prefers a country-only music event. Another direct example of this in modern media marketing is the televised New Year’s Eve specials, which each major cable television network hires a host to perform for the duration of holiday special. Each network hires different hosts, sometimes in different cities, with different musical guests, to target each audience that another network may have neglected.
It is clear in this chapter by Cliff that Macready and Forrest were influential cultural icons to their audience, much like the pedestal that many viewers place their favorite celebrities upon today. The feud between these actors ignited a passion for their viewers, not unlike that of Jennifer Anniston and Angelina Jolie, or Team Edward and Jacob. Gryffindor and Slytherin. This duality has prevailed in American media and performance clearly since its founding.